How much people are willing to pay for something is deeply influenced by the competitors' price point, which in search, is zero, because Google exists. Whereas Netflix's competitors (apart from piracy) are more or less offering the same deal.

You have to be specifically interested in Kagi's selling point over Google to want to pay for Kagi, rather than needing search in a general way.

Actually I think comparison between piracy and Netflix is a good example here. Piracy is free but it needs some arrangement and you go though sources that is not safe, spam and malware. This is true on case of Google searched which is full of ads (that sometimes phishing attacks) spam and AI crap now. Kagi makes it much easier to actually get what you want.

And as always you can't have your cake and eat it too. You will need to pick what is important for you.