Yet my elderly parents(50+ and 60+) and quite a few non-techie friends tap on the first result that comes up when I ask them to install an App.

It’s a reason to not buy them a premium Apple device next time.

I either gift the app or send the link instead of just the name. That turns it into a click instead of a search.

An unambiguous search would take a paragraph to describe.

That's an awesome idea, thanks!

Is the Play store better about this?

No, but Apple is supposed to be better than Google about this.

What a shame.