why is the apple spotlight search still broken?

I've been using a Mac for over a decade.

And every few months, I go back to Spotlight hoping it's finally figured out how to find my own files. It hasn't.

I'll search for an app I know I installed (or even a native one like timer or alarm), and it just can't surface it.

People all over the internet complain about it, and most people usually suggest switching to raycast or alfred.

I'm genuiely curious,

• Do you think Apple can't fix Spotlight, or they just don't prioritize it? What must be the bottleneck?

• What's your current workaround, if any?

• And the uncomfortable one: is this a sign that big tech is quietly giving up on the boring-but-important stuff while chasing AI headlines?

I don't have a clean answer. But I find it strange that one of the most basic computing tasks still feels so broken in 2026.