That might well be a main reason. Plus search options for HarmonyOS beyond Petal Search. But the article states the main aim IMO: "Financial backing could mean the Chinese player gains a say over the company's operations, at a time when Huawei stands accused by several governments of spying and has been pushed out of key markets."

For any sufficiently large Chinese company substitute 'China'.

They have a decent search engine in petal search:

https://petalsearch.com

This would be for a western european audience. I don't think you can get us to Baidu, however you can probably get us to use Qwant.

So maybe it is the brand they are after.