I'd say especially the average user profits from a search system that's somewhat clever and finds things even if they do not ask the exactly right query.

And searching for domains is only a tiny part of it, especially now where a lot of information is stuck in general sites with a lot of content (wikis, Q&A sites, social media sites) and not on special-interest sites. And for many generic searches the special-interest domains are various levels of spam/affiliate marketing.