Hide Products doesn’t work in searches

I’ve found a few reports of this issue, so I’m not alone but there doesn’t seem to be a fix anywhere. I would’ve thought it’d be considered as pretty serious.

My example is I have hidden products that either haven’t got weights applied to them for postage, or haven’t got prices on them as they haven’t been priced up yet.

But I just found out that a general search of say ‘christmas’ brings up these items, shows they’re $0 in price and allows you to order and go straight to checkout.
But if you go to the sub-category and the products within it the products that are hidden do not show.

Here’s a link to someone that tried to help with a fix but the editing of the php didn’t work for me. Nothing changed at all.
https://gammafx.com/woocommerce-hidden-products-in-wordpress-search-results/

There’s many other examples of this issue in a google search. Some have been completely dismissed as whoever read them couldn’t replicate the issue, but there’s too many reports for it not to be taken seriously.

What’s the point of hiding a product if someone can still find it and purchase it?

I can’t code so I can’t write something of my own. I wouldn’t know where to begin. I’ve gotten around it by leaving those products there (too many to delete and re-enter later) and mark them as out of stock with no backorders allowed. But it’s not a very professional solution.

Any help would be appreciated …. please