If it helps, you can click Tools on the right under the search bar on the results page and click Verbatim. I've found that I tend to get better results when I'm looking for something specific.
It’s an example of how google is getting more anti user. They obviously have data on this feature usage. They make a bit of a pain and don’t make it a user preference. I fear this means it’s one of the myriad of little features that developers put in that are eventually de supported.
I imagine the following scenario in a design meeting:
PM: SO THE NEW FEATURE IS AMAZING, WE WILL SHOW USERS THE MOST LIKELY RESULTS THAT THEY WANT TO SEE. AND THIS LEADS TO MORE AD CLICKS.
DEV: BUT WHAT ABOUT WHEN IT DOESNT EVEN HAVE WORDS FROM THE SEARCH?
PM: THATS NOT AN ISSUE, OUR ALGORITHM SHOWS THAT 80% OF OUR USERS CLICK ON THESE RESULTS
DEV: HOW WILL I SEARCH STACKOVERFLOW? HOW ABOUT I ADD AN OPTION TO JUST USE THE EXACT TEXT?
PM: WE HAVE TO FOCUS ON SCOPE, CANT WASTE TIME ON BONUS FEATURES
DEV: ITS NOT A BONUS FEATURE ITS HOW SEARCH WORKS BEFORE YOUR CHANGE. IT TAKES 30 SECONDS.
PM: WELL EXACT SEARCH MAKES US LESS AD REVENUE
DEV: ITS REALLY USEFUL
PM: OK MAKE IT HARD TO GET TO SO USERS DONT GET CONFUSED
DEV: OK, AND ILL MAKE A SETTING SO ITS NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL
PM: NO SETTING THAT WOULD BE A COMMITMENT TO KEEP THE FEATURE
<dec shudders thinking of how she will be hated my millions of users who are inconvenienced, wonders where her life has gone, dreams of a better world, starts typing...curtain>
This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.