Raphael Kaufman, Das Yachid, my suggestion that the boys and girls be paid directly was offered semi facetiously. The point was that throwing money a shadchanim was both unnecessary and was missing the real issue.
Of course it was, and my rebuttal was to clarify that it is “necessary” (or at least should help – certainly not enough is being done without the extra incentive). And age gap *is* the real issue.