From the article, "The best way to fix the system is to prioritize websites that are there to share knowledge, not websites with their primary priority to make ad revenue."

You know who shares valuable knowledge? Other humans who have personally experienced the knowledge I'm trying to acquire. In this context, Reddit IS the website that shares REAL knowledge. I agree I wouldn't search "restaurants near me" on reddit but what I do search locally, and every single time I visit a new city is, "favorite restaurants in city x". The result is real crowd-voted feedback, from real humans that has almost always been extremely reliable, google doesn't do this, effectively.

Another example. I was trying to buy new skis. Google any query and you get SEO'd results which are almost always useless or sponsored reviews/content. Now, try reddit, you get real testimonials from people who have actually used the product and often provide insights I wasn't originally even aware i should be considering.

The reddit dataset is already a search engine, it just doesn't have a pretty UI. It's like trying to buy Gucci shoes at Nordstrom Rack vs. the Gucci store.