I used to own a very-minor worldwide e-commerce site where I sold software and had a bunch of people say that I should hide all the software that wouldn't work

I used to own a very-minor worldwide e-commerce site where I sold software and had a bunch of people say that I should hide all the software that wouldn't work on your device (most often due to operating system version requirements) from searches. I did that, and then had even more people contacting me saying that they knew I sold X but they couldn't find it; my conclusion is that the people who think you should not show out of stock items are annoyed because they think their experience could have been faster, but they are merely filing feature requests as they know exactly what happened and simply disagree: the people who were confused because the item did not show up at all--even though their friend told them it would be, they saw it in an ad, or they installed it on another device--are filing bugs, and this actually incurs costs handling the customer service complaints that result as you have to explain to them what happened and then defend why you thought it was a good idea. I thereby changed back to showing everything, now content with ignoring the feedback that I continued to get for the next decade that some people would prefer the other behavior. I'll also note: when I go to a store and something is out of stock, I find an empty shelf where the item would go that usually has a little tag dedicating that space for that item and telling what its price would have been were it in stock. If I don't find that empty shelf, I end up wandering the store thinking it must just be in a different section and eventually ask someone who works there where to find it, because I am confused, and I am now costing the store money for a sale they aren't even going to get (as the item is out of stock). I thereby don't even agree that the physical metaphor of going to a brick and mortar store makes any sense as an argument for hiding out of stock search results, as brick and mortar stores actually do return placeholder hits for items that are out of stock, both when you ask an employee "where might I find X" (who probably doesn't know if they are out of stock) and when you go to the right section and scan for "what items exist that are similar to X".