Why does it have to be so binary?

Natural Language is great for loosely defining what you want, whilst literal searches are great for finding the exact occurrence of something you know you are looking for.

I can imagine something like:

Search for the error code: "XY123", triggered by product "ABC" when I try and start it bound to port 123. I'm using version 1.0.0, and want results from the official documentation or sites of good repute. Only include solved problems, and give me references in your results.

Granted, a lot of that could be covered by special incantations in a more literal search, but that just feels far more flexible.

Note I'm trying to delineate between literal (in quotes) and Natural Language in this example if it's not clear.