Hi!
I've put together a straw man proposal for how to deal with all of this to have a more co-ordinated conversation:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:TJones_(WMF)/Notes/So_Many_Search_Option...
Thank you! I've put some thoughts on the talk page. I did it topic-per-thought - please tell me if this format is convenient or "one big comment" is better.