Look at how ads in Google SERP were before 2014 (and they already crossed "we won't put ads" line a few years before)

https://www.bmon.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/deep-hole-...

Now, well, if you do the same exact search, at least in my location (and with UBlock disabled) it's frankly a mess but must admit that sponsored links are not even the first thing you see. There is the AI result, then the Wikipedia result, then some random result, then the sponsored block with a flat headline separating it and then the organic results, I presume.