"You don't "ask a question" to the search engine like you would ask your grandmother."
It doesn't matter one jot 'how search works'. What matters is how the majority of their users think it works. And they think it works by asking a question. So publishers need to work with that.
You're right, and yet I disagree with you (which I guess means I'm wrong).
Your position is the path of least resistance: indulge users in their ignorance. It's optimized for the short term, and in other contexts leads to great catastrophes (fast food, for example).
I wish I could find a link to an article I was reading a while back, which pointed out that most users who actually use search engines beyond typing 'facebook login' every morning work out how to search within a couple of weeks at most. Given that, it seems like a bad idea to optimise for the first week at the expense of every day for the next few years.
Sadly, I have no idea where I found that and don't recall if they had any factual data to back it up :(.
It doesn't matter one jot 'how search works'. What matters is how the majority of their users think it works. And they think it works by asking a question. So publishers need to work with that.