Do you really think that’s not on purpose or surprising? If you show them recommendations instead of an empty search result they might want to watch something else or get inspired to use other search terms to find some other result.
That may sound like a bad search for engineers but for the user it’s probably what they want and what Netflix measured.
Being an engineer is no excuse for not understanding basic product design nor being unwilling to see/accept how a feature benefits users.
(I'm saying that to agree with you, not to correct you)
This example is particularly good because they didn't even say "I get it, but I don't like it" or "I think it'd be better if..." Rather, they went straight to "wait, netflix devs are supposed to have skillz?" and "this must be incompetence", an assumption that represents one of the more toxic parts of our community.
That may sound like a bad search for engineers but for the user it’s probably what they want and what Netflix measured.