everything else at Google is pretty much an internal startup and insignificant on their numbers
They constantly deprecate apps and replace them with worse ones, they redesign the notification shade every other update, they'll say they're committing to tablets every few years but apps having tablet-optimized modes lasts until the app is redesigned in a couple years and they stopped caring about tablets by that point.
Google treats its users like beta testers, but instead of getting paid you pay them with your data and/or money. I went through the wringer enough times that I finally bought an iPhone and have no desire to go back. Was I shocked that last time I turned on my Pixel 3 and updated it, the notification shade, messaging app, Play Store, settings app, and nearly everything else was completely redesigned? No, not at all.
Which basic functionality got broken, hidden, degraded, or removed this time?
What new features that I don't want are now in my face?
Which elements got redesigned for no reason, and will be redesigned again next update?
I would pay good money for an option to get long term security updates with zero other changes.
Google's web search has gotten worse over the years. Unless of course we want to say that their only truly core product is ads, in which case I'm skeptical but willing to concede that you may be right.
Search results are only as good as the links to content that others make.
People keep pointing that out, but few want to acknowledge that the web has gotten worse over the years.
When was the last time you stumbled onto a web page written by a caring human author to accurately explain some part of the world just because they're into it? Those kinds of pages used to be all over the web. If you did a search for some random topic, you'd find, essentially, a non-commercial fansite for that exact topic.
But these days, much of the web is commercialized, fewer users know how to write HTML, and people who want to share content typically do so behind walled gardens like Facebook.
Blaming Google's web search for getting worse is like blaming your tour guide when you have a shitty hike because the forest burned down.
Google's web search is less useful today because it puts fingers on the scale of the algorithm, not because the web is worse.
Finding a particular website about a topic isn't the main use case; it's to find a snippet of information, like who played some character on a TV show or whatever.
Publishers certainly don't like it, but it works well for users.