Contact search still broken after two iOS updates. Why hasn’t Apple fixed this?

They will fix what you report https://apple.com/feedback

Do you have more than one Contacts email account? If yes then search each group separately.

If you only have one contacts account, make sure no other email account has Contacts toggled on.

Not every issue an individual encounters on their device can be attributed to an iOS update. iOS 27 or later may have coincided with what you are experiencing, but that does not mean the issue was triggered by iOS. Coincidence in timing is not, by itself, evidence of causation.

If the update itself were the root cause, then every device running that same version of iOS would exhibit the identical problem. In such a scenario, the forums would be flooded with countless posts reporting the same malfunction, creating an unmistakable wave of complaints that no one could possibly overlook.

The absence of such widespread reports strongly indicates that the issue is not a general, system-wide problem with iOS 27 or later, but rather something specific to the individual device, its configuration, installed apps, settings, hardware, or another interacting factor.

In short: iOS 27 or later may be a coincidence in timing, but there is no basis to conclude that iOS itself triggered the problem simply because the issue appeared after the update.

See what each update does: About iOS 27 Updates, About iOS 26 Updates, About iOS 18 Updates, About iOS 17 Updates, About iOS 16 Updates, About iOS 15 Updates, About iOS 14 Updates, About iOS 13 Updates, About iOS 12 Updates, and so on...

When you open the Contacts app and view the list of accounts, the screen displays the available accounts and their respective groups or lists. At this stage, the search field is not visible on the screen.

To access the search feature, tap any account or select a specific group or list. On the next screen, you will find the Search field at the bottom, which you can use to search for a particular contact.

Therefore, the search field is not available on the initial account or list-selection screen; it appears only after you open an account, group, or list.

Please refer to the picture below for a visual explanation of where to find the search field.

SravanKrA wrote:

...

If the update itself were the root cause, then every device running that same version of iOS would exhibit the identical problem. In such a scenario, the forums would be flooded with countless posts reporting the same malfunction, ...

I have only seem this reported with iOS27

Those with a problem also reported multiple Contact accounts which would cut down the numbers.

Two things can be true at once.