Let's say that's the case (which absolutely isn't true), the challenge is that Google currently controls the access points to the web for most people. Google owns the default settings in Chrome, and they pay Apple and Mozilla billions of dollars a year to also be the default search engine in their browsers/devices.
We hear a lot about SEO spam but the other end of the spectrum seems underestimated: Google likes to dictate how your website looks and behaves. If you fail to live up to those demands you shall either not be indexed or indexing will be limited to a hand full of pages.
It makes a good example in it self. The search results here are dominated by penalized SEO practices. The reality is that you need to stop linking to things google doesn't like.
When I write an article I aim to write quality content. This involves gathering all relevant websites about the topic. I want the reader to have access to ALL pages written by knowledgeable people but also all pages advocating opinions I do not agree with or what I consider misconceptions. Ideally there is a flat list of references and material that creates the full picture of stuff available online.
I have a lot of interests and like to zoom out. My next article might be related to the first in some alien harebrained way only understood by me or it might be about something entirely different.
After just a few of such repeated "offenses" google will already punish the site. One could write 3 of those masterpieces per day for a decade.
You can revisit previous write ups and add even more links. Those will be ones you couldn't find previously! The really "bad" ones. And oh? Look what you've done! You've added to many links to the article.
If you wanted good ranking you should have pooped out one of those shallow turds google loves so much. Short articles, very limited information around a very limited scope and lots of links pointing at your own pages rather than the topic at hand. (the person or website you wrote about)
Articles about SEO penalties of course do not link to the google documentation for webmasters.
you forgot the ads!
> it's unlikely they can keep up with Google's infrastructure.
A custom search engine for a specific scope of interests will very quickly get better than google.
Take YaCy, feed just HN into it and have it crawl 2 or 3 pages deep. The level of curation around here isn't modest. Take your own comments and have it crawl a bit deeper for those.
If someone without technical skills can make something like that in a few [low effort] days without any fancy hardware it should be easy to make the proverbial google killer.
Finding a niche worth buying a subscription for is a different story entirely ofc. I imagine it could be bundled with something less ambitious that people are used to pay for that caters to the same niche.