I don't think it's already clear which is the dumb choice.

LLMs are clearly a useful product, I'm not arguing that. That's not sufficient for being the new Search.

To be the new Search, they also need LLMs to be performant enough to be profitable. And yet, stay unperformant enough that it isn't feasible to run them locally. And they have to stay useful long term, after the web is flooded by slop or content dries up because people stopped consuming the web directly. And a monetisation path needs to be found and survive legislation.

But more importatntly, it's not A or B. Gemini could have been pushed without sacrificing their golden-egg goose for the cause.