Are those passionate/nerdy people still running niche websites? A search engine that prioritizes that kind of content would be great.

I haven’t validated it myself but Kagi is trying to offer this kind of small web search https://blog.kagi.com/small-web

There’s a search engine for exact such websites — https://wiby.me

I've been using Marginalia to avoid commercial sites. Open-source and unencumbered by ads:

https://marginalia-search.com/

its not sustainable. any search engine that gets popular enough will get SEOd by bad actors eventually. we can enjoy it while its good though

Kagi is fine doing that. See also https://kagi.com/smallweb

No, they got rich adding ads, sold their websites and are now influencers

No they're running YouTube channels and Substacks because of built-in monetization.

And it would make no money therefore it wouldn't exist.