My results are the same or better than Google in DDG as far as I can tell. I haven't missed Google a bit since I switched. So, either the difference for the average user is minimal or there isn't a difference.
It’s a frequent complaint. I wonder if some people just use search differently and the lack of tracking makes it work worse for them on DDG? I’m in the same boat as you (except for their horrible decision to just ignore what you search and show you almost random results when they don’t get enough/any hits) and rarely ever use !g.
Part of that might be that non-english searches in DDG are a horrible experience.