"Why can't we have a standard search element that filters a list on the client side (similar to how ng-repeat | filter: worked on Angular 1)?"

It's pretty new, but: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/da...

"Wouldn't a standard HTML element for drag-and-drop sorting be awesome?"

There is a standard drag-and-drop API, but unfortunately (bafflingly) it's imperative/event-based, not declarative. Seems like it would be simple for them to add HTML hooks that use the same underlying code.