@troublewithwords I don't really have any good answer for the actual tool recommendation part as I mostly /try/ to do digital painting myself...

But about the death of search, most #shovelware, #scamware and #junkware can be eliminated by searching for Libre, Open Source or Free Software (although that last one tends to require directly referencing Free Software licenses) in addition to what you want.

It does add yet more required knowledge barriers for search though.