I personally feel against paying after 2/4 or 3/5 (because some people do the two date minimum) because there are so many shadchanim that outright lie about either side. A girl was telling me about a shadchan she was using and wanted to know if it was normal the way she was feeling. “Just go out on another one”. “Just try it- maybe he’ll be XYZ on the next one and he is just shy…”
Maybe this payment schedule will just make people stop dating when it could be working because “he/she is just not worth the $$$ to try it”.
What about the idea that people don’t reveal significant medical information about one party until they reach date 5 or whatever? then the shadchan makes $$ (date 2 and 4) knowing it very well might not work out.