> I've been using DuckDuckGo's NoAI version as a fallback, and I've had great results so far; brings me back to the web I remembered growing up -- personal blogs, random forum discussions, and whatnot -- with just a fraction of the page bloat.

Honestly I don't believe you, despite the desire to. IME, DDG results are even worse than Google's; I've had queries that returned enough AI generated blog spam (and I mean utterly worthless borderline nonsensical drivel) to fill the entire first page of results. Not one organic result.