If Netscape had a large paid install base and still failed because a free browser became ubiquitous, what makes you think doing that now when the free browsers are already ubiquitous would work? Especially when it also has to compete with what is essentially already what you’re describing, Librewolf (or just Firefox + Arkenfox).
I just add the search to firefox and you can get the same functionality without needing to use another site to get to the one you want to search on.