Their app doesn't have ads, thank god, so I'm trying to figure out what the motivation would be. Is it just trying to get people to watch Netflix content they wouldn't have otherwise seen?

If they just become a cog in a larger search wheel then you'll just go directly to the one show you want to watch.

* Universal Search - which they're doing with everything else - the user is trying to find a very specific content.

* Recommended Shows - the user is looking for things to Watch

Netflix could easily plug into both of these to capture the user - but they plug into neither and instead opt to create a suboptimal flow for the user.

What they're doing here is that, when on Android I search for a Show I never see a "Watch on Netflix" button.

And there's never interesting movies to watch on Netflix highlighted on my homescreen.

They're not doing themselves any favors by NOT having this functionality.

I suspect they are - their catalogue is strong enough (and paid for) that people will seek out the app when they realise it is not included in the recommended watching list.

Their strength these days is not their catalog size, which is constantly shrinking, but their original programming.

Which is exactly the type of stuff they should be surfacing in the OS itself - as it's what makes people stay with Netflix.