In theory that's the argument I guess. Girls who pay for the site are more serious about meeting someone and give more people a chance, so long as you meet steps 1 & 2. And face it, the numbers are going to be skewed no matter what you do.. the more barriers to entry the better the odds.
That said, internet bitches are already crazy so I'd say you're better off going hard everywhere to increase the odds of someone being normal. I only did the free game too, but I'd say I got responses from like 1/10.. then of those maybe 1/3 actually panned out into a meet. I'd think you'd run through the prospects pretty quickly on the pay sites, which is why I never tried it.