Ehh this might have been true 10+ years ago, but most people are more savvy than that today.. I think you are describing something that is less and less common (which may explain why Google is trying to encourage people to keep doing it).

You'd be really surprised. There are still people that do exactly what the grandparent comment relates, today, in 2018.

"Less common" isn't "doesn't exist".

Yes, but I suspect it is far more common (I have no evidence to supply however) than the grandparent comment appears to imply.

We (the HN crowd) can easily get caught in a 'bubble' where because we known the details, and those with whom we typically associate also know the details, that we extrapolate those observations to conclude that "most people" know the details.

But until one's been in a situation of providing support or training for a diverse user group, one does not see just how little technical knowledge the "average joe" (a set of which we the HN crowd are very much not a member of) has of these things. The "average joe"'s level of technical knowledge is astonishingly low compared to the HN crowd's level of the same.

Yahoo Search still shows a second search box under the first search result if you search for Google, to capture users that search for Google then type in their actual search term, even when they're already on a search engine.

They may not make up a huge proportion of users, but they still make up a huge number of people in actual terms.