In similar fashion in the Android Play Store they moved the search off from the top bar. For some time they educated users that "oo the search is no longer here, you need to click there -> to get to the page with search!". That has stopped (for me?), but they still haven't found any other use for same place in the first view.

I suppose it was too convenient.

No idea. I used it a lot too, not sure if pasting here worked from the beginning of them introducing this Google Lens thing or not.