They've been messing with operators so much, I've lost track what works and what doesn't.

Apparently the double-quote still works. Well, that's good.

Double-quote is "sort of literal" (google will perform automatic stemming on single words in double quotes, but not on phrases) if you want really, really literal use "intext:" or "allintext:"

Good tip.

All is not lost! If you try their sample question, with quotes, it only turns up 4 results - with the article on top. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=“Which+is+better+for+me+—...

But it seems inevitable that as google targets what most people mean, they will target less what niche people mean (us). They could do both, with explicit operators etc, but would double their indices, and not worth it (for them). :( At least it creates opportunity for the google-usurper.