Not really. The only time that I have had to find a group was during my original college years as I had moved to a new city. Normally, I have created groups as necessary. However, for a long time, I have pretty much had stable long term groups averaging ten years or more. Most of my player turnover is to long distance moves. Furthermore, at some point, any lost players have been replaced by players recruited by existing players (although, I vet the new players after having had a very disruptive problem player and encountered a few others in other peoples games).
As for having to look for a group just to play, if it ever came down to it, I would simply not play rather than play in a style of game that I do not enjoy. It is not a difficult decision for me to make as I am an advocate of no gaming is better than bad gaming where bad gaming is often subjective and as simple as a style of game one does not enjoy. In fact, I have walked out on campaigns including, temporarily, on the a long term group that I founded, following a return from a semester break to focus on work and classes. To make a long story short during my absence, the newest player took over DMing in my absence. He also brought in a friend whom was a "butt-kicker' that only liked combat. The guy would be disruptive if the game moved away from combat so the DM tailored the game to his friend. I didn't have fun so I informed the DM I would not be returning (A day or two later, we talked and he was not having fun running the game He talked with the long term players and learned that hey were not having fun, but were accommodating just to have a game. The DM altered the game to the group's preferred style).
I also walked out of a boss's group after two sessions. They were nice guys and I continued to play Risk and Talisman with them, but I did not continue in their high level AD&D game in which characters were modeled after various comic book superheroes. It is just not my type of fun D&D.
(Note: I am much more picky about fantasy than other genres- especially, when using D&D as the system. For other genres, it often comes down to the mechanics of the system where the deal breaker is a lot of D&Disms in terms of mechanics).
In my experience, having a restrictive approach hasn't really limited my options. As the DM, of course, it's almost always in the style I want to play, because that's the game I'm going to run.
My campaigns are very old-school in the sense that I allow only the races in the AD&D PHB and much of UA, classes are restricted (no barbarians, druids, monks, although they exist, they are almost always NPC classes), special abilities for the classes are often tweaked to bring them into line, there are level limits based on ability score, and ASis aren't as generous, combat is more deadly by design, healing magic is less effective, and resurrection magic of any sort is almost never available, etc.
And yet, I literally have a waiting list for people to join right now (and will probably be starting a second night to accommodate more people.
I'd say that having a well-defined (some would say overly restrictive) game makes it easier to find people that stick around for a long time because it's much clearer what they are getting into. It's not just "a D&D game" which could be any of dozens of play-styles and tone. People coming to my table know what to expect. The only one that's a bit of an issue for me right now is somebody who outright stated they are all about power, that they absolutely will be a power gamer, and I explained this probably isn't the campaign for you. And it is becoming a bit of a problem not because of them wanting more power, but because they aren't engaging with the world and the story. He's a character (ranger) from the same town as everybody else (one of my requirements right now, because I want them to be well grounded in the campaign), and yet, when he witnesses an innocent being attacked by an orc, he saved the person, but then wants to know if he's wounded enough that he's unconscious so he can rob him while he's still in the room. When he realizes that the guy is awake and looking at him, his solution is to just go next door to another place to rob. This is while the entire town is being attacked by orcs, and the rest of the party is fighting to save the townspeople. Afterwards, the rest of the party returns to the tavern to discuss clues, and plans, and the table is all involved except for him, who is alternately sitting in the corner by himself, or wandering around outside (at night, while the villagers are recovering from this orc attack) to see if anybody has a job that they'll hire him for because he wants to make more money. I really should have gone with my gut and saved the space for somebody who wants to engage in our style of play.
So I highly recommend that you have a good understanding of what you like. It doesn't mean you can't branch out, and I have run a few games with 5e RAW, but in the end I only have so much time I can put into it, and I'd like to spend that time playing it the way I enjoy the most.
