You're right to some degree, but there were lots of user studies done. It was a net positive. One of the amusing things was that users would follow the instant

You're right to some degree, but there were lots of user studies done. It was a net positive. One of the amusing things was that users would follow the instant results without necessarily being consciously aware of them. I.e., when describing their interactions with prototypes, only a few noticed and pointed out that they were getting results without pressing Enter, yet a larger number clicked on them. It had to be pointed out to them, at which point they would often go "whoa". I remember a few non technical users who really raved about it.