Have they ruined fusion in the Shin Megami Tensei series?

I'm talking about the search and skill selection functions. Now, skill selection isn't too terrible, all it really does is stop you from needing to re-load a fusion page 100x for some of the rarer skills to transfer down. However, the search function feels like it just dumbed down fusion so much. I first ran into it in SMT: Devil Survivor. I thought they were trying something new because it was a different genre. Kind of a "people are going to spend time in the SRPG section, so we should make fusion quick and simplistic." Which, I have to admit, worked out decently. However, recently I got SMT 4...and it has the search function as well. In fact, it's completely removed the ability to pick two random demons and see what comes out.

I dunno, I just feel like the search function has ripped out the soul of the fusion system.