Finder search broken. Will not search specific folder, only entire Mac

I have a 2023 MacBook Air using Ventura 13.4. Apple M2 16GB. From the day I bought it new the Finder search would not work for any particular folder. The option to search the entire Mac does seem to work, but that is no help to me. Spotlight search does seem to work, a little (Spotlight does not show as many files as searching the whole Mac).

I really need to limit searches to a specific folder.

The thing is, the option to search specific individual folders is there. But it provides no results at all.

It has always worked in the 4 or 5 previous Macs I have owned.

I know a lot of other Mac owners have this problem. And I know there is a youtube video that claims the fix is to remove my entire hard-drive from Spotlight and then re-add it so it will re-index. However, 1) I am afraid to risk losing at least the ability to search the entire Mac, or even risk losing all my files; 2) Some people said doing that did not work for them; and, 3) Why should brand new Macs have Finder Search issues?

Why doesn't Apple fix it and help us?

Does anyone know a sure fix for this?

WES