I have been on DDG for ages, but honestly it doesn't solve the underlying SEO problems and I still find the searches lack depth.
As for Kagi... look, if I'm not willing to pay Google to remove ads from Youtube I'm not willing to pay for search just because it got crappy. I was here before search engines and I can live without them again if I have to. Or, you know, with slightly crappier ones if I have to. I survived AltaVista. I can do this again.