Re: Word search

[Richard Stallman]

    C-w in the search string editing minibuffer is a natural extension of
    C-w in isearch mode (`isearch-yank-word-or-char') because there will be
    no difference between `C-s C-w C-w ...' and `C-s M-e C-w C-w ...'.

    Since `isearch-edit-string' uses a normal minibuffer, it would be
    natural to extend this C-w feature to other minibuffers.

This seems like a hair on the tail wagging the dog.