Church itself was never my third place, but yea, I feel like third places in general need more love. Going to a physical third place is probably less common these days, yet something we need, both as individuals and as a society.
There's hobbies places, kinda, but it's a bit less varied in the people there and often less accessible than a traditional third place.
Online forums are more accessible, but lack other good characteristics of a third place, imho.
It's obviously not the case for everyone, and I don't mean this as a generalization, but I've seen some people looking for dates who are also a bit too focused on their search, sinking their own ship.
I didn't meet my wife by hunting for a wife.
I met her doing fun things with other fun people, in whom I had no romantic interest whatsoever, and we eventually met as friends of a friend and it snowballed from there.
If you desire romantic companionship, start by making non-romantic friends?
I'm not saying that's easy either, I know I've often been too drained from work to do much socializing.