Not sure why you're getting downvoted, looks like we both had a similar path around the same time. I tried DDG very early on maybe 2012/13 and the results were awful but I tried it again in 2017 and found it works fine.

I have since moved to Ecosia a year or two ago as I found the results were very similar and have no issue with it.

Does make me sad the traffic page is gone: https://instruments.digital/duckduckgo-traffic-archive/