Where did my Finder Filter go?
That's not a search window, that's just a regular Finder window.

Hit  Cmd ⌘   F  (which will open a new Search window), or start typing something in the Search box, top right, &amp; your filters will appear.

If you still don't see it, click the + top right - highlighted in green below...



You can also use it to add more filter criteria...
(Note that "no query should be required" only applies if you start from  Cmd ⌘   F  not from a regular Finder window, as your first example.



Late discovery
It doesn't work if you start from "All My Files"
I have no idea why.