What you've described is the exact mechanism through which generative AI will actually kill search on the open web. It's less likely that search will be threat

What you've described is the exact mechanism through which generative AI will actually kill search on the open web. It's less likely that search will be threatened by the alternative of Q&A with a chatbot as much as by slop overrunning valuable content. More and more of the discoverable content will be machine-generated filler produced for exactly the reason you describe, it's rewarded by rankings. People won't even bother writing on their own, let alone producing images to go with the writing. It'll be like the herculean task of just finding a damn recipe online without reading someone's life story first, but 1000x as bad. It's already here I guess. We've seen the baby peacocks in the coalmine.