I made several arguments why search is interesting. Just repeating that it's not, is not really a counter-argument.
Also, the fact that AlphaZero has search is irrelevant. This is a completely different model architecture. Stockfish had search before AlphaZero, does that mean AlphaZero wasn't interesting either? Or hell, why not just say all computer chess developments are uninteresting because alpha-beta was invented in the 50s?
I guess I'm saying their goal here was to do no search and get high performance, not create the highest possible performance. The trade off between run time search and more training (better models) is an explicit area of research, and this paper is in that realm. Noam Brown has talked a lot about this in the context of poker and diplomacy.
Also, the fact that AlphaZero has search is irrelevant. This is a completely different model architecture. Stockfish had search before AlphaZero, does that mean AlphaZero wasn't interesting either? Or hell, why not just say all computer chess developments are uninteresting because alpha-beta was invented in the 50s?