@cassidy@jcrabapple We(Nova), allow you to use any search you want by entering your own search URL if you'd like. That decision is totally up to you and what you use.
We also allow you to have At A Glance on the home screen if you want and we're working on tons of new search related stuff with the current Nova 8 beta builds that you'll get to experience very soon.
We post release notes via the @novalauncher account here on Mastodon and I work for Nova as well.