In my experience the quoted search does work. Google will report it can't find what I asked if there are no such pages with the exact quote:
No results found for "...".
Results for ... (without quotes):
It's just very cumbersome, the old +/- syntax was more usable.
Actually, I'd prefer if each word I write would just default to being a hard requirement. I could then manually allow more creative interpretation with a specific syntax, like ~word, or exclude specific words alltogether with -word.
That works for the case you described. It will still ignore typos, dialects, or in my case a completely different language from the same language group. It will happily highlight different words that it deems to be equal to something I put in quotes.
It's infuriating when I search in Ukrainian on YouTube and all the top results are Russian. Using words dissimilar with Russian helps, but that's not always an option. More and more today, I'm fighting with services that want to show me engaging, trending content. It's as if they're holding the real gems hostage, only giving them up grudgingly when I fail to succumb to cat videos or [insert trending content].
Actually, I'd prefer if each word I write would just default to being a hard requirement. I could then manually allow more creative interpretation with a specific syntax, like ~word, or exclude specific words alltogether with -word.