I know it’s been getting worse over time, but I could still find what I needed after some digging.
Recently it’s been like 10 minutes of adjusting search terms, still getting completely useless or irrelevant results, and me just giving up afterwards. Other search engines seem just as bad.
I use Ecosia instead of Google, but I know that Google recently added a “forums” category to the top of their search. Have you tried that? Hopefully it will help bring back to life independent forums.