I also was not able to remove the search bar. Disabling the Google app just leaves a useless white bar.
So, I tried other launchers. This is my experience:
- Lawnchair: Outdated, at least on F-Droid. Did not try it.
- Rootless Pixel Launcher aka Launcher3: Same problem, search bar cannot be removed.
- KISS launcher: Replaces the Google search bar by a more useful one but has a quite different approach (only one widget, app icons automatically arranged, …)
- Essential Launcher: No search bar but only one widget and up to seven favorite apps.
- Light Android Launcher: No search bar, no widgets, no app icons.
- Zim Launcher: Very powerful launcher which does the trick but seems a bit unstable at the first glance.
- Bliss Launcher: Search bar with different provider, some fixed widgets which cannot be removed, app drawer on home screen.
- Fairphone 2 Launcher: Works well if you like edge swipe.
- OpenLauncher: Very nice but a bit fiddly to set up.