Yes that much is clear, but DDG has a privacy bent to their engine too. It just seems like working with DDG to remove that fault would be beneficial to both parties.

If I recall, DDG chose to use Bing to remove Google from the equation but also prevent the need to reinvent the wheel.

Brave for all their technological progress and talk about improving the web, often seem to promote only themselves with their advancements. They aren’t required to share anything however. The parroting of bangs is just a bit hostile is all.