These are definitely preferable to using straight Google but some of these use Google/Bing to get search results. I’m not sure of the others but Ecosia use Google/Bing for their results and Startpage uses Google. Quant does seem to use their own index but it seems like it was built partially off bing when they first started off. Again, not sure about the others if they have their own index.

PS: What’s wrong with Brits?

There are plenty of creators that are worth far more than they are getting from YouTube ads. The only reason I want to move away from YouTube is so that Google doesn’t get my attention/money

I also used one a few years back. Worked great when trying to find my bike in the bike parking of Dutch train stations. I don’t really use it these days as I have learned to remember where I park my bike and I haven’t used any of the new ones with the Google/apple device locating integrations. I’d strongly recommend