Agree. Only thing I want to add is that it's not just SEO ruining search, it's contradictory incentives. A user wants the quickest path to an answer but Google actually wants you to engage as long as possible so that you can look at ads.

If you'd now create a short/brief web page with the perfect answer to a particular question without any ads, Google would fully dismiss your page.

That's the tragedy of Google, never breaking away from that perversion.