Nah, I think the solution is simpler: multiple competing algorithms. Gaming one system is pretty easy, gaming 5 isn’t. So if a search company wants to always have the top results, they need to swap between a handful of good search algorithms to keep SEO hunters at bay.

Hiring experts is certainly a good idea, but due to the sheer size of the internet, it’s not going to be feasible.

As for the original discussion about censorship in search, I take it to mean intentional hiding or demotion of relevant results due to the content of those results. SEO spam isn’t relevant because it’s not what the customer is likely wanting, so hiding/demoting it doesn’t count as censorship imo.