@Kirk194
You are echoing what Hosts have been saying for the last few years. Airbnb makes software changes 2x per year and both Hosts and guests are sometimes baffled as to why changes were made?
I understand why guests loved the categories feature, but Hosts experienced a lot of issues such as placed in the wrong categories, denied categories they obviously should have been in and incorrect proximity callouts on the listing to popular destinations like beaches and National Parks when the listing was either no where near those locations or much further away. Also denied proximity callouts such as on the beach or beachfront, when the Host clearly showed the listing WAS on the beach or beachfront. These issues led to multiple problems for Hosts as guests complained the information on the listing was incorrect (it was), but Hosts had no control over these "proximity callouts."
Perhaps Airbnb will add some new search filters (Hosts have been asking for more filters for a long time) that will include some of the favorite categories.
