Calling it "just search" is like calling a compiler "just string manipulation". Not false, but aggressively missing the point.
I don't mean search in the reductionist way but rather that its much better at translating, finding and mapping concepts if everything is provided vs creating from scratch. If it could truly think it would be able to bootstrap creations from basic principles like we do, but it really can't. Doesn't mean its not a great powerful tool.
No, “just search” is correct. Boosters desperately want it to be something more, but it really is just a tool.