The way I see it they were pretty helpful: this question has been asked and answered (incidentally mostly by you and them) multiple times since the box can be opened. Hinting at using the search box does seem like the right approach here. Granted they could've also linked
one of their answers but that may defeat the purpose of directing people to the search box in the first place – the incentive to actually learn to use it would be gone.
Also, the poster of the question hardly qualifies as newb and is more of a lurker really: they registered on Feb 1, 2018 and posted their first message on Apr 17, 2018. And while I do realize that most are here to actually play the games instead of hanging around the Zone, it would still be quite a long time without ever seeing anyone mentioning the search box or feeling the need to use it…