When moving items by clicking the search focus is removed. When you move them by shift-click, the focus stays. I think the clicking behavior should be consistent. Right now I shift-click out and immediately hit 'e' and instead of closing, the 'e' is added to my search, which isn't the desired behavior.

MC 1.16.5
RS 1.9.12
Enigmatica 6 modpack 0.4.3

agreed, its by far the most annoying difference compared to AE2

When moving items by clicking the search focus is removed.

This is no longer true in latest RS (v1.12.3). If I click while it's selected, the selection stays.

When you move them by shift-click, the focus stays.

This is true.

The behavior is at least now consistent.

But we should probably defocus now.

Agreed - I run into this constantly when trying to leave a terminal. I know what I need to do but my fingers refuse.

I'd go so far as saying clicking anywhere else in the GUI should take focus away from the search field.