Google wants to promote sellers that sell products using Google Ads
I have been posting this and about localisation for at least 10 maybe 12 years,probably 2014 when I went fully html5.
It was inevitable, G has globalised classified advertising, G ads have replaced many older forms of adverting at lower cost for many types of business but not all by a long, long way.
For the overwhelming majority the www has matured and, in general, people are comfortable with it, they know where they're going together with their preferences. Unless one has an exclusive new product do not expect anything revolutionary to happen, it is very unlikely to.
However in my experience, 33rd year this year Chris, if one is seriously researching "whatever" it is still a fantastic resource. For sure there is a load of spam plus AI garbage out there but for the seriously-minded quality is still there, just don't expect millions of visitors or a quick route to millions of Dollars.
For many now, and definitely me, our sites are specialised niches just like low volume printed book runs used to be.
