+1, this is the only way to get old-school(ish) results, even without explicit quoting. Unfortunately, it can't be enforced just by adding parameters to the URL and has to be selected manually every time. (edit: actually it can, see below)
Verbatim really highlights how almost useless the default mode has become.
But that's almost worse than removing it completely! They recognize that people still need to do this, but deliberately make it more difficult in the UI.
(I worked on the team that added the tbs= parameter, 14 years ago.)
There's nothing nefarious here. The integration of &tbs= is deeply tied into GWS; it's written into the C++ substrate, while most of the rest of the server has been rewritten in Java + a bunch of custom languages. Most likely they simply can't remove it - it's permanent technical debt that nobody has the expertise to touch anymore.
Changing the UI is all done in a plugin these days, and is a relatively trivial change.
Verbatim really highlights how almost useless the default mode has become.