Mind boggling: Safari.app maybe a clue on the INDEX not working (only on fusion drive it seems)

[AIRaquarian]

Details: IMac 18.3 on Ventura.​

I have tried safe mode, various terminal commands, and more. Nothing seems to make a difference.
However,
I was doing some investigating and found something curious...
When I try to search ANYTHING nothing comes up.
But,
if I search " . " (including a space b4 and after the .) one and only one file consistently appears, no matter if I search in applications or my entire machine. And that file is ... Safari.app
Why, when I search my entire Mac for " . " it finds 1 result - Safari.app??
In the meantime, I have no search capability on my internal drive. External is fine. Both internal and external are SSD btw.
Please advise or let me know what additional information you may need.
AIRaquarian

 

[Bigwaff]

Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

If you get unexpected results when searching your Mac, rebuilding the Spotlight index might help.

support.apple.com

 

[bogdanw]

Safari is stored on the Preboot volume in Ventura.
See Spotlight issue https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/spotlight-issue.2379453/