> SEO, and people getting annoyed at not ranking, has been a thing for 25+ years, I don't think this instance is any different. "People have always complained

> SEO, and people getting annoyed at not ranking, has been a thing for 25+ years, I don't think this instance is any different. "People have always complained about X" is always a bad argument: it's entirely possible that X has gotten much worse, and yes, there were complaints before and after. In this case, there is a very loud chorus of people saying Google has gotten much worse in the last few years, and it certainly matches my experience.