Even when publishers have a good brand, it doesn't change user behavior. How often do users directly go to Wikipedia to look something up? Google search is integrated into Chrome, Android, Google Home. Google is a monopoly.
Yes, publishers should find non-advertising revenue models. Yes, they should find non-Google sources of traffic. But that's blaming the victim. The fact is that Google has started stealing more and more content from large and small publishers in order to keep the user from leaving Google. And it's not OK for a monopoly to do that.
As has been pointed out, so many users have gotten in the habit of using an omni-box to go to all URLs via a search. Staying its a choice to block Google is a false choice as that would mean death. The analogies are spot on. Google is in a position of power due to search dominance and content creators have very little unless every content creator decided to all drop off together. This is unlikely.
Yes, publishers should find non-advertising revenue models. Yes, they should find non-Google sources of traffic. But that's blaming the victim. The fact is that Google has started stealing more and more content from large and small publishers in order to keep the user from leaving Google. And it's not OK for a monopoly to do that.