I'm not saying I agree with it, but I think this comment

> Yandex does not add any special feature or functionality that is so great they should make it obligatory to include as a default option.

kind of captures kagi's argument: that its removal would degrade search results in a not-immediately-noticeable way, particularly for certain areas of the world, which might actually be worse than a loss of a distinct add-on feature or something.

...but yeah, from my perspective, it'd be great if you could turn it off.