Rob,
Thanks for response.
I understand that Lightroom has a SDK for plugins and this is a really good thing as it does allows others to tweak and enhance functionality without relying on Adobe. I have been a user of Lightroom since the very first user trials and think it is a great product. I have watched it develop over the last 5 or 6 years.
I do think it is more than just an image editor. Lightroom has always been promoted since day one as a new and better image database and workflow management tool. It is for this reason that question why Adobe has not closed some (I think) gaps in functionality consistent with Lightroom fullfilling its purpose as an Image library/Database management tool. It has certainly had the search capabilities included since day one of all metadata, consistent with a management tool.
For the work I have been doing lately, Search and replace would be useful as I have been cleaning up metadata in various libraries. Hence while I agree it is not used every day, it would be a very useful maintenance tool.
I thought I had posted this originally as a response to a similra request in the Lightroom Feature request forum, apparently not. I did try (today) to start a new feature request but I was blocked from starting new threads in that sub-forum. Hopefully someone else with access to that forum will pick up on this and transfer the request to the Feature Request forum.