Google Image Search has been intentionally crippled ever since the Getty vs Google lawsuit. GIS now seems to prefer showing me 'maxresdefault.jpg' YouTube thumbnails for at least 50% of results, presumably because the uploaders of those videos gave Google a license to use/distribute the work. Even for copyrighted works that still gives Google another party to blame.
Could you go into more details? What exactly were the ramifications of the lawsuit?
My understanding of it as an outsider is that Getty Images filed a suit against Google seeking money for their images being displayed in GIS results. They later announced a settlement, and the 'View Image' button disappeared and the search result quality plummeted (my judgement) at exactly the same time. Here's some more reading:
https://venturebeat.com/2018/02/09/getty-images-and-google-d...
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/02/internet-rages-after...
They certainly don’t have related/similar images, which I find useful.