I use the $5 plan. Basically for any time I’m searching for something I already know where to look (weather, sports scores, particular website) I use ddg or brave (or bookmarks). When I’m looking for more nuanced things like programming questions, recipes, reviews, etc. I use Kagi. Works pretty well with bangs in Firefox.
To answer your question: I hate ads so it’s worth it to me to have no sponsored crap in searches where there is something to sell
Ive had two on proton mail (plus more on their services) without any issues