The Japanese use it fine on Cornelia. It has nothing to do with it not being good enough, it is the fact the player base refuses to use it.

If they add FFXI's party search like everyone is demanding it will actually be far far more limiting then the current system.

This is an example of a trait of us NA players... We are stubborn and very very resistant to change. The search would work perfectly if everyone uses it... but it does not work at all unless people use it.

There for the search is not the problem, it is the players.