Thunar search now lets you filter directory and offers a button to search with Catfish , click and it then opens Catfish with search results of the term you where looking for (no need to reenter search term)
Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're describing what I remember about using Thunar + Catfish.
In Dolphin and Nautilus I'm able to search using the file manager and results are treated like another directory I can navigate back to them and select and/or run commands on them. It could be just my perception but I also think searching is faster than with Catfish. I really can never go back (until Thunar has that too).
