[Buschel]

The "block view" is called "wall view" or "grid view".

1. Animation
The shortly visible animation I can also see in other menus (e.g. Music). I can take a look at this, but I am not too much bothered about this for now.

Edit: I recorded a video and checked it in slow motion. Test sequence: Go to Music and have it in list view. Then go back to main menu and select Favourites (which will restore grid view). Outcome: There is no unwanted content. First, the empty panel is sliding in from right to left, then the grid view content is following. Maybe the two-step animation causes the reception of something different is shown.

2. Search bar
I cannot reproduce the missing search bar based on your description, but I found another way: Enter grid view, then in quick sequence switch to list and again grid view. Now the bar does not show, but it will react when clicking into the gray area. I know this issue from the bringup of the search for grid view. This happens when the grid view is brought up without removing the search bar from the list view before. I am quite sure this is a race condition.