It might be a myth, but it would probably be the best search engine.

Bing is too good, they're trying to capture market share and likely operating it at a loss. But if people leave Google, it's most likely because they dont want tracked. And Microsoft is probably at best just as bad as Google.

A go between that anonimizes the results would be exactly what people want.

afaik they use multiple, including bing and their own indexer (duckduckbot afaik)

Their own CEO admits they are required to allow Microsoft tracking in their "privacy" browser due to the contract for search. They use Bing for search, it's not a myth.

For non-search tracker blocking (eg in our browser), we block most third-party trackers. Unfortunately our Microsoft search syndication agreement prevents us from doing more to Microsoft-owned properties. However, we have been continually pushing and expect to be doing more soon.

— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) May 23, 2022

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/duckduckgo-browser-allows-microsoft-trackers-due-to-search-agreement/

Of course, we have more traditional links and images in our search results too, which we largely source from Bing.

https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/sources/

So I wasn't totally right in that it doesn't all come from Bing, but it largely does.

They literally state this themselves, it's not a myth.