Despite being recruited to appear on the previous season of Love Is Blind, I did not watch the most recent season, which just concluded. But what I’ve learned about how that season has gone vindicates my decision not to pursue the opportunity of going on the show.

The hit Netflix reality TV show takes an equal-sized group of men and women, isolates them in a sex-segregated compound, and lets them to go on a series of “dates” conducted on either side of a wall the daters can hear but can’t see through. They can then decide to get engaged, allowing them to see each other and live together in a trial period that precedes possible marriage. When I watched the show after being recruited for it, I got a strong sense — especially from the D.C.-set season — that it was not a good way for someone like me to establish a long-lasting relationship.

The most recent season, set in Minnesota, confirmed this. One of the few couples that made it out of this bizarre setup failed at the altar, in full view of friends and family. The reason was politics. Sara Carton left Ben Mezzenga at the altar because she believed he was not on “the same wavelength” as she on such issues as “equality, religion, and the vaccine.” You might have expected these things to have up earlier during a normal courtship. But apparently not in one conducted on reality TV, and driven by superficiality.

Part of Sara’s hesitation arose from her viewing a sermon online of the church Ben attended, after he said he didn’t have strong views about its beliefs. She was horrified to discover “traditional” views about sexual identity being preached from the pulpit. I don’t know what Ben’s prospects are now. But if I’m right that, while Love Is Blind has proven that old-fashioned romance is still out there, “old-fashioned methods remain a better way of finding it,” he might be better off starting his next search at church.