I'm in my fifties and have been punting for over twenty years and I think things have never been better. I know what I want, and what's more, how to get it. Yes AW is far from perfect, but the OP should remember back to the pre-internet days of back page adverts in the local rag (or adverts in newsagents windows such as "Big Chest For Sale"!) where you really had no idea of what services were on offer, what the girl looked like and OWO and FK (never mind DFK) was rare. Yes, there is a lot of rubbish on AW, but it is increasingly likely than we can spot the poor service providers using the vast experience of the membership of UKP. If you are not sure about a profile you can post a query on UKP and if someone has seen the girl they will get share their knowledge with you.
I have never spoken to anyone face to face about my punting, but since signing up to UKP I have people willing to give me advice for the first time ever. In the old days you felt you had struck lucky if you had a good punt as every newbie was a complete stab in the dark. Nowadays, unless one decides to TOFTT (as is our civic duty to occasionally do), with careful research the chances of a good punt are vastly increased. The only problem now is that with reading these pages and browsing AW I am consequently punting much more than I did in my thirties.