You’re making the better of the two choices, and yeah, I’m a dreamer. Let me dream. But no, giving away something of value for a service is not necessarily “free”. It can be like selling Manhattan for $24 worth of “free” beads. A rip-off.
In the meanwhile, I use Startpage and Duck Duck Go. And sometimes Bing.
There are more than two choices. I recommend Startpage. Oh, and the tribe that sold Manhattan for $24 dollars worth of beads, as I understand it, they got a great deal (in the short run, anyhow). Manhattan wasn’t their territory, it belonged to an enemy tribe!