Yes isearch is powerful, but you have to learn and remember its keybindings, because if you don’t: isearch quits (and I need to start that search at the beginning).

Isearch’s help C-h b doesn’t make it better, because I would need to scroll that long list in the help window, but if I do so … isearch quits.

Therefore I installed the package isearch-mb (*) and used easy-menu to add a drop down menu for isearch. Now, if I can’t remember an isearch keybinding, I am able to look at the menu bar, without isearch quitting.

(*) As always with Emacs: there are other ways to solve that.