Have you tried using "Tools -> Verbatim"?
Verbatim really highlights how almost useless the default mode has become.
https://www.google.com/search?tbs=li:1&num=30&safe=off&q=testThere's nothing nefarious here. The integration of &tbs= is deeply tied into GWS; it's written into the C++ substrate, while most of the rest of the server has been rewritten in Java + a bunch of custom languages. Most likely they simply can't remove it - it's permanent technical debt that nobody has the expertise to touch anymore.
Changing the UI is all done in a plugin these days, and is a relatively trivial change.
Thank you
https://serpapi.com/playground?q=The+most+popular+fruit+in+t...
Other useful parameters, you can use nfpr to force it to not correct your search terms
https://serpapi.com/blog/filtering-google-search-and-google-...