Disclaimer - Spend your money how you want. Use what works for your needs and moral standing. This post is a data point for consideration, not an endorsement.
I use Kagi with the unlimited search paid version. Whether it's my own needs, friends, family, etc, I always seem to be the one doing the searching for everyone I interact with. After years of Google feeding more and more sponsored links into the results I switched to DDG, and after about 6 months of finding their results lackluster I tried Kagi.
For me, it works. I don't know that I'll use it forever or anything but at the moment it does a better job of getting me reliable results within the first few sites and I can move on with my day. I just need quick, accurate search results. So far Kagi has been that.
I did the free trial thing a couple times to see how it worked before paying and I'd suggest that to anyone thinking about switching. Give it a week or two on trial accounts and if it sucks then it probably isn't for you.