But apple isn't that privacy-first. They're better than microsoft, but they play both sides of the equation.

For example, they allow web blocking. But only opt-out web blocking.

But isn’t DDG just proxying search requests to Bing?

Pretty much. They claim there's multiple sources, but the results are strikingly similar. And on image search, identical.

If that's all DDG are doing it would be simple for Apple to replicate, no? Do Bing charge for this? If not could they legally enforce such charges? What aren't there more DDGs around?

Yes, Bing has an API which they charge for.

I don't mind if it's a proxy. I value my privacy more than whether DDG is maintaining its own entire search stack.

You value your privacy but blindly trust DuckDuckGo?

They say they store all your searches in their privacy policy (but "not in a personally identifiable way" they claim). They also say they effectively rewrite your search results to insert affiliate tracking.

Even if their entire stack was opensource and you had strong visibility and guarantees regarding the code they're actually running in production, adversaries could be exploiting DuckDuckGo and recording all the information you send to them "in a personally identifiable way". So, basically, don't trust DuckDuckGo. They're yet another for-profit middleman (maybe parasitic, maybe not, we don't know) that, through its centralized information accumulation, enables the sort of behavior you claim you want to avoid.

Suggestions for alternatives? Feels like we're all stuck between a rock and a hard place these days.