Something that I have discovered when I enable the Profile Privacy Field, which makes sense, is that if the user selects Private it also means that even if another user can make a Connection Request, are met with an error message (Cannot access this resource).

I suppose, I ought to allow paid members from not being bombarded with connection requests, so I would just need to make the error message a little more clear, like having it say, "this user has not allowed connection requests", or something along those lines.

Ideally I want paid members to be able to connect with each other, but not allow non paid members access to their profile pages.

For now what I have done is limited what a free member can see when they click on a paid members avatar or name in Kunena. I am using either CBSubs Tab Protection or CB Conditionals.