I would think the quality of the search would not ever be a factor- it wold always be the highest quality. The fees charged or entered in would have nothing to do with how "good" of a search it was or is.
The reason I bring this whole thread up is that I was doing a case a number of years ago - it was a rather large county owned park- and there was a reference in the documents to an old lawyers file , as having done the title also-I inquired of that group( the ones that now had those files) and was promptly given the complete file. Upon reading it and looking over all they had- the invoice was also included in the file, and it was a BIG one too- I asked about why or how they were able to charge such high prices and was informed that back then, things were priced as a percentage of the sales price of the deal-that has since been changed as a result of the lawyers taking over in the title insurance end of the transactions- as agents, they all get their cut now- and can allow or require the title search fees to be drastically reduced as they presently are now. I still think that was a good system and an inflation fighting way to do business, just like the Realtors and others that price by or with a percentage of the deal rather than a "fixed" price.