Pre Covid, I could not venture out on Sukhumvit 11 or environs without running into someone from "back in the day". It always surprised me that they remembered my name. After Covid most went to ground. For years I would meet women I once knew from back then with their husbands or boyfriends after they had settled down.
But to me "the bar" had a different meaning. Back then, the demographics in the clubs and after-hours scene (Sin, Tunnel, funky dojo, etc, even the plastic chairs on Sukhumvit) were more mixed, and freelancers were often just regular women looking for a bit of fun and perhaps (but not always) a financial top-up. I only spent time in the gogo bars when a visiting friend insisted.
You could meet women from the hospitality industry, travel agents, shop girls, and even the odd nurse or university student. I'd be just as likely to pull an expat office worker or teacher as a Thai.