iTerm text search is in reverse order
Searching in reverse is apparently how iTerm's search works by design (see https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/issues/4491).

As a user, I also find this design decision confusing.

If you would like to make Find Next / Find Previous in iTerm behave consistently with other apps, here are the proper keybinding overrides to add in System Preferences &gt; Keyboard.

Note that I had to restart iTerm for the keybindings to fully take effect.