When I follow some link to 'thingumajib' in a text mentioning it and I'm offered to write an article about it because it doesn't exist yet, I am not first offered a list of articles that match it and that might indeed be the wanted article under another title.
Why wouldn't I? I could even be told something like: "The page you come from pointed to an article that doesn't exist yet in Wikipedia, at least under the suggested title. You might consider writing it! Or if you find out it does indeed exist in the following list of close matches, please click here so that we create an automatic redirection link."
When I search for 'thingumajib' and am told no article matches that word, I am not naturally offered to write down an article about it. Why wouldn't I?
Hence I suggest to make searches and links to absent articles just the same and join the nice features of the two.
What do you think about it?
It might also help to solve an argument I'm developing on wikipedia talk: Naming conventions (pluralization).
Cheers Claude