For chicken-and-egg apps which require a network effect, should I try to delay my user from noticing early on that there aren’t many others?

For example, in my user registration, I can let the user pick preferences for other users, similar to a dating app.

If those other users get filtered out, this introduces the possibility for the user's first impression using the app to be, "Oh, there's nobody here. Is this thing dead?" -> close -> uninstall -> and they'll probably never come back. Churn. Actually, it's just brand new!

So while I'm growing the app and there's not many on it yet, should I leave those preferences out of the registration, just so they'll see a bunch of people to begin with and their first impression isn't that the app is dead, and slightly delay it, allowing them to choose the preferences later? They could still potentially get value from the app even if it's not just their strict preferences right away.

I know there's not too much I can do here cause they'll find out eventually, but what is your recommendation?