Making custom footprints is rather time-consuming. And not many circuit designers are skilled 3D modelers. I think most KiCad users will benefit from improved component search.
KiCad’s built-in component library has grown a lot lately, and now has 10,189 footprints and 11,300 3D models. Maybe it would be sufficient to add search on top of KiCad’s library.
Still, it would be better to have the 29,765 parts in Celestial Library. They come with datasheets and Digi-Key SKUs. An added benefit of the external database architecture is that users on old versions of KiCad can get updated components without manually installing a backport. But because of trust and reliability concerns, it will be important that users can configure their database connections.