Philosophically Kagi resonated with me, but Perplexity just gave me better results and it won out. This move into an ad-driven-revenue model may tip the scales back in Kagi's favor.
For those that aren't aware, (part of)the Kagi hypothesis is ad-driven-revenue ultimately leads to enshittification, and that the solution is a subscription model. I don't question the first part of this hypothesis(ads -> enshit.). But the second depends on many factors. In this particular case, how long does the enshittification take? What if we just move to a world where every 10-20 years, there is a new VC-subsidized but ultimately ad-funded organization that kills the previous incumbent? And we just jump from ship to ship, never realizing the cycle we are in because it takes 10-20 years for the ad model to rot at the core of the product.