Raids seem to have killed off almost all partying and behests.
Raids are partying. That's where the party is at. Behests are great if you catch them, but it's not like people go behest camping.

With solo now a complete joke, this has made rank 25-43ish nearly impossible
Solo is the same as it ever was. They didn't even change soloing. I don't get how it is a joke considering I've soloed from 38 to 42 just fine.

Rank 25-45 is not impossible. R25-35 you do either Rank 30~leves, Toto Rak, or find a beastman camp. Rank 35+ you do the rank 40~ leves and behests (which give really good sp bonuses), find a beastman camp, or do raptors after 40ish.

the search system still fails epically
It's actually not a very difficult system to use. It's just that nobody uses it. I remember back in the day having to explain to people how to join my open party. They were like, "What? There's a party search menu? Why can't you just invite me?" People are satisfied with shouting in Ul'dah, so they don't even bother using the feature. When they added "seek invite" I only saw one person, other than myself, trying it out. If anything, the community still fails epically for not even trying to use it.