JAs others have pointed out there is not one Sugar bowl but many, many different flavors. From scammers, to hardened cynical mercenaries, to regular working SPs, to attention seekers that will never meet anyone, to shy college girls, and a few in-between. All these have different wants and different dynamics. Just like guys have very different ways of approaching girls and how they will be successful with various groups. As you can imagine guys saying "I will provide you $xx for 1-2 hours of intimate fun" don't do well with the non-pros.
My only interest is in college girls with daddy issues that actually get excited at spending time with a fun older guy. You need to meet over coffee first to see how well you get along but my rule of thumb is whatever she needs above $100-200 per meet (multi-hours) is what she needs to hold her nose to hang out with you. The more you have to pay, the less she likes you and the less interesting the main event will be. And just to clarify, this also applies to total stunners (10/10 girls and an actual 5'11" model, girls that are getting dozens and dozens of messages). Is it time-consuming? You have no idea. Are you going to see a lot of dead-ends? Expect it. Are there true gems? Yes, a very small handful.
Very good executive summary of SA. My success level on SA has been better than expected but after I got some experience and feedback from SBs on what they did not want to hear, my shtick got a whole lot better. Most of the college girl target SBs want a guy who can go out on a date, behave normally and chivalrousy, sustain an intelligent conversation on subjects other than how you want to get in her pants, buy gifts (chocolate are my go-to) and dinner at least, and have a "let's see where this goes" attitude. Most of the smart college girls on there will bluntly ask you what you are looking for. I tell them I am looking for intimacy but not right off the bat, that I want to find someone with whom I have chemistry and something in common and then see where it goes. The vast majority of women on there, unless they expressly say they want a platonic relationship only in their profile, are open to anything.
And evil is dead on when he says the cost depends on how much noseholding is necesssary. A girl who might normally ask for $500 for FS dates may settle for $300 for an extended dinner date with FS if she likes you. I actually offered a girl I was in an arrangement with $400 for an overnight in NYC, and when she accepted I was shocked. You just don't know what will happen. EVERYTHING is negotiable, you just have to be straight and honest about what you are looking for and gain trust.