I've switched to DDG several years ago and don't miss anything. I still use gmail but only because of inertia. I could switch to some other provider but haven't felt the need yet.
The hardest replacement for me is Maps. Their search and traffic data always work for me. They have a webapp and mobile app that are excellent. I could do without the ads but recognize it's the tradeoff for using their app. Nothing I've tried gets close to a replacement. (I've heard good things about Apple Maps on iOS, but I have an android phone)
As someone who's been using DDG for the past three years, I'd love to nudge more people toward it, but when I think of how often I have to prefix my search with !g to find what I'm looking for, I don't think DDG is quite there yet. The only thing keeping me from going back to Google is that I despise it more than I'm annoyed with DDG.
Using Google some of the time is better that using it all of the time.
DGG has been my default search engine for years now, and like you, I occasionally need to add !g to get the answer I’m looking for. I’m fine with that. I hope DGG uses those failed search followed by a !g search to improve their stuff. (In a privacy preserving way)
Well, saying "you need to put !g if you think google would find the result better than what bing is showing" isn't easy for everyone to understand and adds a lot of friction. Perfect isn't the enemy of good when there's already a service that most people regard as being perfect (at least for the queries they're giving it).
Technically you don't ever have to prefix with "!g"; you can put it anywhere in the search box. I find DDG gives me what I need >90% of the time, and often when it fails, Google fails too.
I often find I get better results from Google when I'm making purchasing decisions, identifying where I can buy a product locally or for a good price, which disappoints me because that's data I definitely don't want Google to have about me.
The hardest replacement for me is Maps. Their search and traffic data always work for me. They have a webapp and mobile app that are excellent. I could do without the ads but recognize it's the tradeoff for using their app. Nothing I've tried gets close to a replacement. (I've heard good things about Apple Maps on iOS, but I have an android phone)