There are two pieces to any search engine the software side the the searchers side. The eBay search engine has always been problematic and the attempt to integrate the promoted listing aspect into it has made it that much worse. It's common on other sites as well but I have found the quality of the results to be much better on other venues.
The other piece is the searchers side. The results of a search are often dependent on what parameters the searcher puts into the search. I don't buy much on eBay these days simply because I cannot find it, I don't want to sort through the 100's or 1,000's of results I get back from a search that have nothing to do with what I am looking for, and I can generally find it easier and cheaper on other sites.
Promoted listings has always been a race to the bottom for sellers and despite early warnings a lot of sellers are only now beginning to realize that as the PL %'s sellers are using continue to increase in the belief that they are gaining some advantage over other sellers by doing so.
I began to diversity across multiple platforms and venues long ago. Some of this was forced by eBay and their ever expanding list of restricted and prohibited items and the VERO program. At one point eBay accounted for about 90% of my sales by volume. That is now down to about 20%.
Depending on eBay for a living is a VERY risky proposition given you could be restricted from using the site at about anytime and without any prior notification. About the best advice I can offer you is to diversity and have alternative strategies in place should something take place. EBay no longer has the quasi monopoly they once had and sellers are diversifying across multiple sites and buyers are certainly doing so.
