Bing and DuckDuckGo still work how Google used to work as far as SEO goes. Backlinks, keyword density and domain name with a relevant keyword all mean something.

Google is more advanced now, and you'll notice data above the fold isn't even suggesting organic websites anymore. It's mainly ads and data Google has scraped from those sites.

Generally, you need to scroll down to find actual websites for popular search terms.

We just need to remember they're an advertising company first and search company second.

And yes, a heavily curated website using canonical links identifying the source should rank well given you have enough unique content originating from the site to complement it.

Quality and Quantity still work. You just need to let the bots know where the content originated from if it wasn't on your site.

Start small and add more categories as you can manage to curate.