“If the point of dating is to get married, putting on the ritz is a waste of time,”
That’s like saying, ” I serve my family on plastic plates, so the chasseneh meal should also be on disposables”
No. Special occasions should be treated as such. Are there exceptional cases? Is this case one of them? Maybe.
But as a rule, the 1st date (and possiblly 2nd one as well) should be FQ all the way.
(Ok, maybe not a dozen roses, but short of that, pull out all the stops)