I'd wager most people wouldn't want to install your extension before 2 searches, to see if it's even worth using.

A handful of searches seems entirely reasonable to test out a service before downloading an extension that only exists to change your default settings to use it.

I'd definitely be more likely to download an extension for something I'm already using than I am to download an extension for something I've never even seen in use.

I don't know if I want to use your search engine, it is literally impossible for me to set it as my homepage and use it casually. I really wish I could give it a proper chance, but your tacit denial of what is obviously bad design has come back to bite you in the butt. You're making the exact same mistakes the Brave browser did, if you don't back down on a feature that the majority of users are telling you to change, you'll have a hard time proselytizing in the future.

Honestly, I won't install your extension because I don't know who you are. Having it as an option would be great. People here have seen _many_ stories about extensions being silently updated with malware.

I really hope you reconsider. So far I've got great results for the queries I ran in Incognito mode, but I will not install an extension just so I can change my search engine.