Shameless plug, but I work for Slite.com and you should try it. We also made a browser extension that replace your new tab with our editor, no strings attached: For Firefox and for Chrome
You can even see the decline in posts and votes before GPT became mainstream.
This definitely look more like search engine failing to get rid of those cheap copycats.
I live in Montpellier. It’s free for the whole metropole, meaning Montpellier and the 30 cities around it