How can you use such an operating system now
You can disable searching as a fall-through, but you cannot disable web results appearing inside of the menu itself, which is what slows it down. At least, that was the case for the first 4 years or so before I stopped using Windows 10 and switched to Linux.
You can, and the search speed is much improved. I deployed that group policy to all my w10/11 boxes.
you can, it’s just harder to do. I suggest find a debloater tool, and use it. Also remove cortana thing to make it even faster. There are some tools that let’s you remove all WinRT apps
… or I could just use dmenu on an OS that I don’t have to “debloat” to make useable?
you can fully disable all online/web search features in search using a group policy on Pro versions of windows. afaik there are even one click tools that can do that for you (pretty sure even good ol’ OOSU10 can do it)