Permanently remove recents.app

There is no Recents "App" so there is nothing to delete, remove, or alter. The only thing you can do is disable the display in the Sidebar.

Recents is a Search folder. It lists the items that have the kMDItemLastUsedDate set in metadata.

If you don't like it, don't open it. Nothing requires that you open that Search Folder.

Do you have your Finder prefs set to open new folders at Recents? If so, change it.

First, I had not realized that there is a Recents.app. Thanks for pointing it out, and proving it with a screenshot.

Second, once you pointed it out, you should realize why you can't change it:

Recents.app's location is

/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Applications/

which means it is an application that is part of Finder itself.

You don't want to change the Finder or any other application that is part of macOS.

Fortunately, you don't have to.

1) Control-click on Recents and choose Remove from Sidebar

2) Create your smart folder. You can name it Recents if you want to, and have in the Sidebar where the built-in used to be.

You wrote in your question - I want to control the smart folder completely. I tried to change the smart folder settings but it wouldn't let me save as recents but wanted me to save as a completely different smart folder.

Where do you want to get it smart folder saved .

You can uncheck add to side bar click on drop down arrows of saved searches .

And select the desired options .

Since that App is part of the Finder bundle, the only way to remove it would be to disable SIP and delete it from within the Finder bundle. I'm not sure if that will cause Finder to break, but it certainly would be superfluous.

What exactly is the point of removing it?

Recents folder that is an inbuilt in finder and is the part of operating system , what ever you search in present is shown ( you can uncheck the box in finder preferences to hide it ) .

You can't create itself " Recents " as a smart folder , as this originally inbuilt .

And what you are trying to make is -

Click on save .

Click on drop down arrow of saved searches .

And , if you open spotlight top hits will be shown .

In the Finder's Preferences/Sidebar pane uncheck the Recents checkbox:

Then create your own smart search and add that to the sidebar.

FWIW, all that does is create a new Smart Folder called "Searching 'Recents'" with no search criteria and add it to the Sidebar. Not sure what that's supposed to do.