Google's VP of searching has even mentioned that, which really is Google's fault as it was an issue long before spez caused Reddit to crumble - Reddit was just propping up Google's bad choices, then Musk bought Twitter and started running it into the ground, now Huffman sees both of those as examples to follow somehow... plus Stackoverflow is on strike, and the internet archive / wayback machine is facing legal troubles and may have to cease existing b/c of some decisions they made during the pandemic as well. So it's not just Reddit: it's enshittification of the entire internet.
I know what you mean, but also it's kinda fun to solve my own problems lately, even if it takes 100x longer:-). Fortunately cached copies of many Reddit posts exist, although unfortunately those do not always include comments:-(.
"All" is an awfully large group - perhaps start with "some", e.g. "all in Maine" (and likely some subset of that even, like those who have lived there for 5+ years already, to avoid someone getting cancer first, then suddenly moving to Maine, then once the expensive treatments are over with go back home, etc.), and then if people enjoy seeing it be done well, expand our from there. I dunno... it's a thought, at least.
You seem to be misunderstanding the point of your doing your search: they got paid for the results that they delivered, and for the ad traffic of you having received it! Don't you see why this is best for them you? /s
For those that enjoy using Reddit, they are perfectly happy to remain... so why try to force the issue?
Their criticisms of this place are most often correct - it does have less functionality, it does have a barrier to entry, starting right from the beginning in picking an instance to join, and if you later switch then you have to make a new account and start over (I think? although your old content would still be accessible, it wouldn't be "yours" anymore without logging into the old one). We prefer it anyway, but it's up to them what they want to do.