I don’t think it’s worth it to pay for search. There’s a number of decent search ones that don’t track your info like brave, Presearch and others.
I myself started to pay for proton for the benefits it offers not just the email. It’s really not bad in the grand scheme of things and it’s a better company than many.
I wouldn’t spend the money on the search engine, especially because search engines are decreasing in popularity and utility the more AI is developed.