I noticed something missing. This is going to be kind of off-topic, but I’m sorry. Some people have too many apps here; why isn’t there an app search bar? For people who use a lot of apps, this situation is going to become really difficult. Like it happened back in the MeeGo days, Sailfish OS absolutely needs to come.
An easy workaround are icon folders. That might be even faster from user point of view.
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Yes, and using a combination of folders on the first screen, and other less frequently icons on a second screen, you’re only ever two touches/swipes from any app.
I also like to keep my frequently used apps in the bottom half of the first screen for easy reach with one hand.
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We’re getting off topic, aren’t we?
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Use QuickLaunch, it’s exactly what you want.
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…or SearchNemo, it’s a lot more then they want, but so underrated! 
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You also need to consider that not all of the apps listed you need every day. So if you really have troubles finding an app, you could just move everything you don’t need very often into a folder.
But from my experience, muscle memory helps you find the apps you need 99% of the time.
Oh, I didn’t know that one. Brings back memory of the device-wide search of PalmOS PDAs.
In an ideal world, I would like something like that (or like the QuickLaunch app that I’m also using), and with a search bar directly on the cards view (or events view) so there’s a way to immediately start searching from one of the key screens without needing to start the searching app or needing that the app’s card is permanently open (I do the latter on one of my PinePhone Pro).
Somebody a bit more knowledgeable in QML could make a patch in Patchmanager to achieve that.
Oh, and a plug-in system in that SearchNemo so it would be possible to add more search targets (e.g.: recognize addresses and link-out to PureMaps).
(Yes, I’ve been a heavy PalmOS and webOS user in the past and absolutely loved their search system and am still missing it).
I don’t have experience with MeeGo, so I have no idea whether my above PalmOS/webOS-inspired thingy wish is close to what was the situation back in the days.
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It is possible. In SearchNemo top menu you’ll find “profile list” where you can add more profiles with more specific search targets. When new profile is created you just whitelist what you want to search. For example, I have a profile where I search /usr/share only, because I’m always looking up things there.
Despite 15 years on Linux I haven’t really learned grep yet. 
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Having apps to filter apps is not a great option. A filter field on top of the app grid seems better.
A design for such a feature is not that easy though - the ‘peak’ feature collides with it, and there is no easy way to show and hide the field (pull-up / pull-down menus aren’t available).
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Quickbar had the bar at the bottom (on the home / lock screen); but it also had its limits.
It will make a comeback at some point. Maybe you can try that one.
Did you happen to try it? I would love to have some feedback!
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I have to admit, I don’t know what Quickbar is, and I’m sorry for that. From what you explained, I guess Jolla used to have a search bar for quickly opening official apps, but it was removed, I think, just like the Maps app.
Personally, the thing I said should come back is something developers have made some solutions for, but those don’t work very optimally either. They’re not as good as the app search application on MeeGo. I hope Jolla makes an official search app; I would be very happy about that.
Quickbar is not from jolla. See here Quickbar BETA | OpenRepos.net — Community Repository System
its lacking the sandboxing support but i plan to add that soon.
EDIT: just uploaded the builds with the sandboxing support 
at the moment the build from openrepos disables it, unfortunately.
Main issue is that the mechanism to track the processes being opened is not functional in sandboxed mode (for obvious reasons). There is an alternative, which is to leveraget the XDG standard; however it expects the apps to actually comply with it (which they dont, at least most of them).
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I’m of two minds here.
First, yeah, absolutely, searching for apps sucks.
But then, apps I use often I open not by recognizing the icon, but by remembering the location to click. I realize this every time when I reflash my phone. Apps I don’t use often are pooling in the other locations, what narrows the search. So it is only very rarely I am searching for the app I need to launch.
So if there is a way to do it without seeing it when you don’t need it, that would be ideal. Maybe like in a pull up menu when on the last app launcher page or something.
There is the pull up menu on the lock screen with the three favorite apps.
But it’s static. On quickbar, once you have it at the bottom at the screen, you have the MRU (most recently used), the Favorites and also a (yes clumsy I know, WIP) search.
Its surprising how easy it gets to reuse apps you use more often directly from the lockscreen.
It’s a bit more complicated when you want to launch something that you know you need now, but have to search for it, as you need to type text. I guess a mind connection would be the best 
I’m remembering location of icons too. I have apps in folders organized by color of icons. That’s for me probably the best combination.
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I fully understand the wish for a search field or for preferred apps. It serves different kinds of thinking.
I personally like the folders’ approach, but would prefer an option to sort alphabetically (lexical, following the languages rules you are using or not).
I miss this feature very much.
Something that might help you is to take a screenshot of the app drawer before you Backup, so you can move the icons back to how they were after you restore your device
Workaround is to sort them manually.
It seems that it’s saved in file /home/defaultuser/lipstick/applications.menu but I don’t have experience with restoring.