I think the search field should have the initial focus (so that the first item in the main view is not highlighted -> regression?). xfce4-settings 4.15.1
You're right, this looks like a regression. Thanks for noticing!
Simon Steinbeiss referenced this bugreport in commit 65bb2fa2887e04bba237d82e39f0364514a68c73 settings-manager: Ensure searchbox has initial focus (Bug #16890) https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-settings/commit/65bb2fa2887e04bba237d82e39f0364514a68c73