i have 4 fundamentalist cousins who all dated and married good partners via their trad culture (still, dc, they all have college degrees and married in their mid 20s) and i think there's some merits to how it used to work
being part of that community is a different lifestyle- you're held to higher standards and expected to give a lot to other community members, there's a dense network of relations and gossip flows quickly to update reputation, which then determines the benefits you receive
one of the weirder phenomena- kids were generally expected to move out at 18, but simultaneously they'd often move into the basement of another church family who were friends of their parents. the density of working for and living with each other creates a lot of basis for gossip…