Not having used Tinder at all, I can say that "meeting a girl at a bar" CAN be shallow, but doesn't have to be. I'm lucky (now) in that I will talk to ANYONE at ANY TIME, and I have grown a reasonably thick skin over the years. Once I got divorced, I got used to that "microexpression" on a girl's face when I say something catchy (read: stupid) to start a conversation, but more times than I can count (not as many as I would like, though) that goes away if you have something even reasonably interesting to say and she's even remotely interested in something other than "someone who looks like Brad Pitt". Plus, I don't know about anyone else, but the women I find myself most attracted to are not the "model hot photo" kind but rather the ones that carry themselves with a certain grace and style, which you can only really discern from meeting them in person.
Case in point: I met a girl on Match, reasonably cute in her pictures, and we decided to meet, and it was evident immediately that the pictures were either old, or CLEARLY the most flattering five or six out of maybe a 1,000 taken. Not thrilled with that one, but to be polite we had a drink or two, and just talking with her, watching the way her face lit up when she laughed, and (she was much shorter than me) the way she would cock her head to look at me when I said something funny or ridiculous just won me over. We didn't date that long (for other reasons) but that was an interesting lesson for me.