I think you misunderstand the Search function. You seem to expect a full-up search of database contents, which does not occur. You also seem to expect an ability to apply logical filters as part of a search, which does not and cannot take place without major changes to the entire concept. It would not be, as you put it, “reasonably simple.”
The function searches only what is already displayed onscreen, plus what would be displayed if more records were shown. (In other words, if 50 records of 750 are displayed, the Search will return results from all 750.) But the function does not abandon what has already been extracted from the database according to the context of the screen being viewed and dive back into the raw database.
The entire concept is one of narrowing results, not expanding them, but in benign rather than drastic ways. That is why:
- All search strings are already treated as “contains”
- Criterion order is ignored
- Every additional string is treated as a Boolean AND
- There are no qualifying parameters
Another consideration is that most Manager users are not database experts. Many would have difficulty constructing search criteria like your examples. Frankly, I am not sure I understand all of them. I also don’t see that they would be of much use during migration of a company to the program. But that is just my opinion. And, as for forensics, as you gain more experience, I think you will discover there are many ways of locating information that do not require such elaborate search techniques.