Another Complaint About Modern Search Function

I've finally upgraded from Outlook 2013 to 2021, almost everything about it is negative. Not as bad as when I briefly tried Outlook 2019 which was an unspeakable abomination practical for neither desktop nor tablet, but still pretty bad.

My (current) main gripe is the search box. The location is terrible, with the auto-suggested garbage popping down over the search ribbon. You also have to hit enter to search now, and I've just discovered, the search bar loses focus when you do so.

I'd misspelled the search query and started tapping backspace to correct it.... only to see that instead of the search text disappearing, e-mails were being deleted. What an amazing feature.

There used to be a registry edit which would restore proper search functionality, but it appears that has been disabled now. Every issue I encounter, a quick search brings up a load of these tech community threads with Microsoft Agents giving insane or completely incorrect instructions, and/or then saying 'yes everyone complains about this, we've passed on the message' - and the date is years ago and the issue persists.

What changed between the 2013 version and recent releases? Why did Outlook go from a powerful business tool, to some unreadable and impractical mail client designed for children (big icons, bright colours, scary things like basic options and settings hidden away)?

Maybe Outlook 2024 will be better...

Edit:

Ah yes, and contacts, the ribbon sticks in search mode rather than switching to useful one where you can send an e-mail, set up a meeting etc as it did before. So search, enter, click record, click Home, click e-mail button. Vs previously, search, click record, click e-mail.

And all these auto suggesting menus popping out of every box you click into. What is going on? The 'enter to search' thing... it's so small but creates so much hassle. Either hand off mouse or hand off home keys, a micro pause of intense irritation.