DDG being down was the push for me to finally try SearXNG. Used it all day while working on code and it's been pleasant. The search results are actually meaningful and it's fast.
I'm not having this issue. I'm using one of the Firefox extensions but don't get to choose an instance. I just went with the second most popular extensions because I liked the UI better.
I've been hopping searxng instances for a year now and always noticed a couple seconds delay everytime I do a search. Does self hosting help with the delay?