I think it's great. It's not the "normal" UI that people expect - and that's a good thing. Google defined what everyone seems to be calling normal. If people make the switch to DDG they'll understand how the results work and what to expect.
It could stop people from switching though - I didn't see the "right" link when I went there - I just skipped past the yellow box like many people. That led me to get a feeling that the results weren't very good.
It wasn't until I read the comments that I realized that I missed the link that I would have wanted, and the results were good.
It's not ideal that people have been trained to subconsciously skip over certain results, but it's something that has to be accounted for. Otherwise you're going to leave the completely wrong impression in a significant portion of your potential users's minds.
