Why am I being forced to use Bing search engine when I click Microsoft Edge?

Why am I being forced to use Bing search engine when I click Microsoft Edge?

Since a recent forced update some 4+ weeks ago which I kept trying to delay, Microsft Edge now opens up Bing on every search I do in my browser.

I have followed every step I could find to try to fix this including making sure Edge is set as my 'Default Browser' (which it is), as well as clearing my cache and browser history (although that seems to make no sense as it's a settings issue not a data storage issue).

I never liked Bing as it was far more intrusive than other browsers but not only that, the search results are incredibly vague compared to MS Edge itself.

For example, If I was to type 5 very specific things about a single subject I am looking up, Bing will produce very sporadic non-sensicle results where as Edge would always give the the pin-point specific results I needed that vast majority of the time.

Another reason bing is terrible is because if you get a Youtube thumbnail in your search list it will open up ANOTHER bing page and play the video on Bing rather than go straight to Youtube.

Previously Edge had a similar thing but you could at least click the DIRECT text link under the thumbnail to go straight to the Youtube post. What possible reason could there be to open up a page in Bing for Youtube videos? If anything it would cause more strain on a computer because you now need to click on the BING video header to open up a new tab in the Youtube video IN Youtube and then CLOSE the Bing page!

I have a few suspicions why this is but it trully boggles the mind one of the heads of UI design or browser processes (or whatever they are called) would think this is helpful or efficient.

I also don't like this AI assisted search because it gets SO much wrong. For example when I was studying for my Level 1 Carpentry & Joinery exams it would often give false results which made studying even harder.

Please!

Can anyone help with how to perma remove bing from being initiated on every Edge click?

(I'm on 64-bit Win 10)

I know it's likely MS will just re-add at some later pointless update but at least for the time being I would like to have a smooth bunch of searches.

Thank you to anyone who can help in advance.