What's worse than ghosting? People who are too "polite" to say "No thanks".

I would legitimately much rather be ghosted than deal with someone who keeps making polite but noncommittal responses to my texts - when it gradually becomes apparent they're uninterested but they're unwilling to actually say "No thanks", keeping up a charade of interest. At least with ghosting their intentions are clear. Anyone else share this sentiment?

(I've been dealing with a guy like this this past week. We met up for dinner and, so I thought, had a good time, traded numbers, but he's been continually busy every time I make a specific suggestion for another meetup - while still regularly replying to my texts. I didn't want to be the person who just gave up in case he was genuinely busy, but after a week all I could surmise was that he was uninterested.)