Then you are not using the same engine!
(I also use DDG and find its results superior to google).
It's like how Twitter's default feed changed to try to tell you what you wanted to see, while the old chronological feed was the content you originally asked to follow. The simpler feed was always better and less contentious for non-newbie/casual users.
Google is better at deciphering what you want, but DDG is straight up: here's the simplest results based on your query.
Maybe the solution is both? An evolution of the ML approach that Google uses (ala ChatGPT style mimicking a human) AND offering a tab, or box, or whatever interface, with 'simple' straightforward old-school search results. Until the former is better 99% of the time, they shouldn't abandon the latter.
Are we using the same search engine? I use DuckDuckGo most of the time but Google is hardly terrible, even if it could be improved.
I find what I’m looking for in the top results 90-95% of the time. The other 5-10% also contains times where there simply isn’t a good link that solves what I’m looking for even after digging hard.