I didn't think that the search was using the soup views, but that makes sense.

Well, it doesn't, really. I just used the word "soup" as shorthand to mean anything other than playlist. The search essentially accesses the files the same way the Soup views would: Directly by FID based on the tag information. Since your track ordering was playlist-based, it's not honored in any selection other than from the playlist.

What I can do is search for playlists, not source. That would have the correct order. Just tried that and it worked.

This is cool, glad you have a work around. Still begs the question, what's going to happen when we get to play the soup views from the main menu? My hope is that I will be able to get rid of all my artist/album playlists. But will all my albums suddenly play out of order, then?