I tried to use searx for a while, but gave up due to the lack of decent instance.
Ended up using startpage.com - it might be a tad worst for privacy but a lot better for usability IMHO. If anyone is aware of a better alternative, I'd love to know about it.
I have been using my own instance for about 2 years now. I couldn't be happier. While researching for my master's, I never felt I was missing out anything substantial.
Setting up your own instance is as simple as mirroring the Git repository. Mine is running in the default 8080 port.
I've setup my own instance on a VPS of searx (along with git, blog, private npm and a few other bits and pieces). It isn't particularly hard if you've setup an website on a Linux box before.
I want to host my personal instance. But doing so doesn't make any sense since if I'm alone using it. So I'm better off using Google directly, unless someone can search whatever he wants via a service I'm hosting :/
Well if you use google directly, google can track what you are doing. However if you use your own searx instance that is very difficult. I also host my instance publicly (I've not added to the list because I am using the cheapest VPS from vultr) and for some things I get better results than Google, DuckDuckGo etc.
So as with many things it is swings and roundabouts and is determined on what you want to do. I wouldn't call the model flawed, it just seems that the benefits of it aren't what you want. Which is fine.
Ended up using startpage.com - it might be a tad worst for privacy but a lot better for usability IMHO. If anyone is aware of a better alternative, I'd love to know about it.