from what i've read, which is a few blogs by women actively trying to find mr right via online dating, neither party wants to invest a lot of time and energy in someone if they have no chance of being "the one". and the only way to know that, they feel, is with a face-to-face meeting. You find out right away if the photo they posted was fake or old, if they have awful personal grooming habits, if they are who and what they say they are - they seemed to think it was the way to go.