Re: Windows, search, and the art of inadequacy
"So same machine, Windows 11 unusable, Mint very usable. I know the conclusion I've drawn."
Which is at odds with the MS "conclusion". From their point of view, your computer is too slow therefore it's time buy a new one with a new paid-for W11 licence. For most non-technical users, that;s exactly what they will do. And businesses running fleets of PCs/laptops as well.
You, probably like most of us readers here, are the outliers who choose and OS (or trim down an OS) to suit the machine it's running on. Everyone else just upgrades their machine to suit whatever Redmond dictates.