That is the point. Search is free. You will be paying for ai soon. If you don't then you'll get the low-quality results. This is nothing more than greed. They were making lots of money with search, but like everything in the modern world, businesses only exist now to extinguish what was free or a good value and sell the same thing back at an extreme markup.

Furniture was made of wood. Now it's mostly disposable composite junk. Wood, now commands a high premium.

Household goods like toasters, irons, lamps, sofas were all at one point made to be durable. Many people would buy these things and maybe replace them every 15-20 years. Now the same stuff lasts five if you're lucky.