I remember, there was even a guy that Google hired who was kinda somebody in the field of search engines, who was evangelizing and kind of championing Google search, who was frequently looking into these things (he sometimes even showed on HN too, though his name escapes me).

But since the pandemic, when the quality really started to go downhill, there isn't any statement from Google, seemingly just ignoring all the complaints, without even NACKing or ACKing it...