Is this a new feature from the update or have I been doing this wrong for the last three years?

The latter.

I've known all along and refuse to do it. No I will not touch the smiley face and you can't make me

it's always been there, but now the list also allows you to search by tags/keywords not just the designated name of the emote which is neat. This does require the admins to actually tag the emotes tho, which I think is only partially done judging by my difficulty finding some lately

I was legitimately making this mistake and using the old emoji reference website to look the names up for two years

i can feel the pain of this post