What behaviors do they exhibit this? Hadn't noticed, but hate this crap.

Not seeing this, but do seem to notice weaker results than before, and the stupid "BestReviews" crap, which absolutely sucks. Maybe AdBlocker is filtering them out?

Switched from Google a while ago (perhaps at your recommendation?). Quite like DuckDuckGo's anonymity and lack of tracking.

Yes, lots of garbage and not the information I'm looking for. Conclusion: DDG has been compromised. Started out ok, then went south.
Brave Browser followed the same path. Now they too are useless.

I use DDG too and never have garbage in my searches.

The Brave search engine is independent (uncompromised) for now, and the results are getting really good. (When they don't yet have enough results to show you, they'll list some from Google, if you like.) The Brave browser is great, too -- no ads on Youtube videos!

So far DDG is working fine for me.

Cold weather in US..
To check,
Use exactly the same search words. Then with a VPN with a location in the southern hemisphere try again.

If you don't pay for subscription youpay for the advertising.
Another thing that a long term IT friend has offered; If searches are trending in your area the host blankets for a customer.

Duck Duck Go is leftist compromised.

I am blocking the ads. It's coming in the search results
Or maybe its because of the cold weather in US?
I have never had such unrelated garbage before from DDG.

While I don't use DuckDuckGo, the ads for the Caribbean holidays probably date back to when we were discussing buying our own island as a Gulch!