> I believe a search engine that ignores results based on superficial and aesthetic qualities like "modern web design" would be even worse in that regard

I think you may be confused. No one's trying to replace Google here. The idea is to have another option for when Google craps out on you. And if you find that Google almost always craps out on you, then hey, maybe you're in the 5–10% who have just found their new default search engine :-)