Using search as a UI is admitting the UI sucks.
It is indicative of a failure, not a solution in and of itself.
It is indicative of a failure, not a solution in and of itself.
FWIW, search as a UI isn't a bad thing, Cmd + Space is the main way I launch apps on macOS (or Win + "type whatever").
To be fair, it's hard to say whether the Settings app is more broken in Windows or macOS these days. I think I'd have to give the crown to macOS here on account of search itself being more broken.
For example:
I prefer keeping my hands on the keyboard, and typing cmd+space followed by mouse is so much faster than finding the right pixels to click through in menu trees when I want to adjust my mouse sensitivity.
The UI fail is if search is required to find the setting every time you need it, because categorization and/or navigation is broken otherwise.
As to keeping your hands on the keyboard, that's an argument for having proper keyboard support in any UI, complete with hotkeys and shortcuts. The big difference between these and search is that the former is (if properly done), consistent and predictable. So e.g. when the app adds new things in the future, your existing key sequences will still do the same thing they did before.
To take your specific examples, if I do Cmd+Space, "mouse", Enter on my system, it will bring up LinearMouse, not system mouse settings.
On my iphone, I have one page of apps, everything else in the app drawer, and use the search all the time. It often gets what I want in one or two chars.
It also has the benefit of being roughly bilingual (English + Installed language) and being there even in machines not setup for you
I can get my mom's computer, fully set in spanish, and I can win + "query", into settings, programs and tools to setup whatever she needs
I admit I honestly have no idea where the system settings are located as I haven't pressed the start button in ages, but the same applies to MacOS as I would use spotlight there as well.