As always, Apple is gaslighting you. The only reason is because Google is paying them tens of b-b-billions of dollars a year not to. And they don't want to give that up.
Why spend billions a year on a search engine when someone will pay you billions a year to use theirs?
This isn't gaslighting, it's the basics of tenet capitalism.
In what scenario does Apple generate 20 billion a year by owning a internet search product?
Search engines are a dead end. The future is a LLM that can tie its results to sources.
I have more confidence in Apple getting that right than Google. Google doesn't even have the confidence in themselves to brand their product with Google in the name.
In order to create a "viable" search engine business, Apple would be required to "sell targeted advertising," which is "not a core business" for the company and would go against its "longstanding privacy commitments."
That’s more likely to be the answer. If Apple were content having Google’s sloppy seconds while having full opportunity to make Alphabet level profits1 then the world would turn upside down. It’s more likely that Apple doesn’t see an easy avenue to those mountains of ad-revenue money without compromising their privacy image. Might as well take Google’s cheque to the bank the same time as iCloud subscription profits cheque.
*1: I should probably clarify that I mean on top of what they already earn.