I see comments here calling these decisions dumb or stupid.
Plenty of cases everywhere of politicians passing laws claiming they have a certain purpose but will never work as intended.

They already know this!
The so-called reason is a cover for their actions.
Like they use reasons of terrorism or child protection to impose more spying.
If you are giving them the excuse of stupidity it is you who is stupid.

Sorry can’t really help you much, seen plenty people on here that looked into it more.
I have Startpage, Yandex and a few others depending on the subject.
In trying out possible candidates I noticed DDG was really one of the worst, even if I wanted to like it.
All I wanted to say with the comment

duckduckgo sucks