This is why Google ranks responses, then added the side box and tries to answer the question directly. Most people just want the answer and click on the first

This is why Google ranks responses, then added the side box and tries to answer the question directly. Most people just want the answer and click on the first link. A negligible number ever move to the next page. This is of course the opposite motivation to that of the people who write the pages. They (mostly) want you to go to their page. But those authors aren’t Google’s target audience; they want to show an ad to their real audience. I’d rather have a page of links but I know I’m an outlier so I don’t bother to get upset.