The reason it's courteous is you let this person know not to expect an answer from you & they can look else where.
They should be looking else where anyway, at least until communication is opened up with them. If they are sitting around waiting for one person whom they have yet to even talk to reply to them, then they are going to have a very hard time on a dating site.
If I don't get a response when I send someone an email, I simply think he is too busy, and maybe someday down the road I will hear from him. No big deal.
I only usually communicate with two or three guys at a time, and maybe in a week or two if those fall through I might talk to one of the previous ones, so if I had already said not interested it is highly unlikely he will still be open to communication.
And that is just the way it is done from what I can tell, and I bet if we polled the men, they do it that way for the most part as well.
I just don't see how not responding to a wink could possibly be rude, nor to a brief request to communicate...or how it could show lack of character.
If you could see some of the emails I get, OMG...now those are rude IE "got any more pics?" "wow you are stunning, I'd like to see you in a hot tub" "you are beautiful on the outside, but are you beautiful on the inside?"
But this is why feelings get hurt, because we all view things differently I guess.
I finally had to add a reference to my relationship with God, just to keep the rude, thrill seekers away. And it has worked.
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