Best alternative search engine option that actually works?

Cyvapri:

we’re not talking about comparing search engines anymore: we’re talking about paradigm change.

If you are referring to the node network idea, YaCy already did that decades ago, except that they are open-source:

yacy.net

Home - YaCy

YaCy P2P - Decentralized Search Engine

If you were referring to the Web3 tokenization, where node operators get issued speculative tokens of questionable value and limited transaction usage in the market, then sure, Presearch is introducing a paradigm change by copying the Web3 movement.