@seadowg you're absolutely right that we should make sure to have an explicit description of the problem that users need to solve. @zoey (because you authored Showing search option with minimal in appearance) and @Avidace (since you chimed in at Showing search option with minimal in appearance - #5 by Avidace), it would be good to get your thoughts as well.
My hunch is that these folks would like to use multiple questions on a screen. Without the minimal experience, choices take over the entire screen so it's not possible to have other questions below. This is useful so the user can make a selection and then answer follow-up questions about that selection while they can still see it.