In reply to hnla.

You've hit the nail on the head hnla. Plugin search is not supposed to be cute or cuddly. It's an essential work tool.

Giorgos idea about creating a structural hierarchy I find very helpful as well. Tags is great as a loosy-goosy band-aid but certainly does not replace systematic categorisation.

As Ron notes, it's strange to see an Audrey capital employee (Samuel Sidler, curiously he was lead on the Camino browser for 8 years, a great project) autocratically take essential features away from WordPress pros while other Automatticians impose features on us we don't want (required by Automattic for WordPress.com or Jetpack). It would be great if the redesign were more of a open-minded discussion with the community.

I've made a more detailed comment at WordPress.org as that is the official discussion and this is news. Thanks for the heads up.