Google didn't have to "deliberately sabotage search results" for them to be meaningfully culpable in that happening. They are unquestionably the dominant playe

Google didn't have to "deliberately sabotage search results" for them to be meaningfully culpable in that happening. They are unquestionably the dominant player in the search market. They are the ones that all the SEO is aimed at gaming. They could have made it a top priority to ensure that search results were useful to the average person. Instead, they made it a top priority to ensure that search results were maximally profitable for them. This is what enabled the rise of SEO slop polluting search results. And yes, I can absolutely blame them for that: the idea of "maximizing shareholder profit" as a primary goal of companies is a cancer on our society and needs to be destroyed utterly.