He made a post here explaining that it worked out cheaper that way, and that it hasn’t risked the company. Not that I agree with the decision, but you are painting it in a very bad light.
Kagi is a massive breath of fresh air, putting us, the user, at the helm again. We can choose what to personally up- and downrank, whether we want listicles, long or short site previews, the quick answer LLM is easily available, etc etc etc..
It has been a very very long time since I’ve seen a software product that is such a joyful improvement over all its competitors.