I guess that answers my question. After the latest update to the Welcome banner, I just enabled that and it seems to replace the functionality of this component as well as the Discourse Header Search.
The welcome banner is still missing some nice customization this component has like the ability to add a subhead text (extremely helpful as it can prompt users to use the search bar rather than just lie there like an empty box). Hopefully that will make it’s way into the Welcome banner.
On the flip side, is there a way to use the CSS customization feature in discourse to edit the subheading text in the search banner ?