Location history wasn't ever needed for remembering searches, FWIW.
It absolutely was. When I tapped on the search bar, there were no results and it told me to turn on location history.
The number is small enough that I pretty much can directly remember the thing I was thinking about, and why I searched for it. I don’t even want my device saving my recent searches.
Which is what we are talking about.
It was really annoying, because there is no back button in the app, so if you search for your hotel, then for a restaurant, and then want to show the hotel again, you had to type the full address again.
They seem to have stopped doing that, it's now possible to use Google Maps on iOS without signing in, and you still see recent searches.
They still display a message "sign in to get better search results". And a second message: "Add your phone contacts to search for their addresses". But it's a lot better than it used to be.