Lies. Duckduckgo uses bing. Startpage uses google.
Discussion
When did they switch from google?
Bing is not any better.
Brave has thier own search enginr.
They always used bing. You're probably mixing it Startpage which does use Google's search engine.
Why is brave's engine better than bing? Better in terms of usefulness is subjective. If better privacy I would definitely like to hear the argument.