... and yet here we are ?

Nonsense. Your metaphor is not analogous.

Sophisticated tech firms do extensive analysis with reference groups, A/B testing, et cetera.

Guaranteed, they've found that they get better engagement with their product through these AI results.

This might shock you but a group of 14 year olds complaining on Lemmy is not an indicative sample of opinions.

Hyperbole & subjective. Flatpaks aren't all that.

My point is, it seems like moat people disagree with you given that search providers put this stuff in their results.

Obviously I pay for a search engine. The advertising funded web is shit.

That's true, but I think people still appreciate it... like it's accurate enough, enough of the time, for people to find it helpful.

I like kagi more than ddg. It's not free but meh.

Ugh. Do you really want that though? They do have a store don't they? Just no one wants to use it.

Debian has had a browseable catalog since forever but it's still waaay better to just go to a third party's website and see how they say to install whatever thing.

I feel like most commenters here would think "no one wants the stupid ai response", but obviously some people like it or they wouldn't do it. I think if your searches are more general kind of "can I catch chicken pox from chickens" type questions it might be helpful ?

Dude. When you're looking at whatever search just right click in the url bar and there will be an option to add that search engine. Then in settings you can make it your default if you wish.

The reason I don't use SearXNG is because the public instances always seem to be slow and or broken.

This is a really valid point, especially because it's not only faster but dramatically cheaper.

The thing is, summaries which are pretty terrible might be costly. If decision makers are relying on these summaries and they're inaccurate, then the consequences might be immeasurable.

Suppose you're considering 2 cars, one is very cheap but on one random day per month it just won't start, the other is 5x the price but will work every day. If you really need the car to get to work, then the one that randomly doesn't start might be worse than no car at all.

It's nice to be nice.