Another important feature of Kagi that I'm paying close attention to is: they are currently privately bootstrapped as far as funding goes.

To me the fact that Kagi is not currently VC funded is huge for me as far as adoption. Every customer facing VC funded startup I've worked at inevitably starts to institute increasingly anti-user practices while grinning and talking about "customer first!"

I know it's a huge ask, but if Kagi remains privately funded/non-VC I'll happily pay the moment I can.

I've only been using the service for a short while now but have been enjoying it a lot. The ability to blacklist domains has already dramatically improved my search.