Alright, figured it out! If you re-enabled launchpad with the terminal command, it turns off spotlight and all the indexing. I don't know why.CMD+Space doesn't work to launch Spotlight. I've tried changing the shortcut to another combination (Opt + Space) - no response.
I've tried to enable Spotlight in the menu bar to start it from there - no response.
I've tried to unplug everything - no response.
Each step has been tried with restarts.
The command to restore spotlight and disable launchpad is
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/SpotlightUI.plist SpotlightPlus -dict Enabled -bool true
Which I found here: https://www.bgr.com/tech/how-to-restore-the-launchpad-on-your-mac-in-macos-tahoe/
Note: Always verify any terminal commands you find online, regardless of source. Also, never directly copy and paste from a webpage because additional text you cannot see can be injected when you paste it in the terminal window, as BGR's website does. Paste it in a URL bar first to sanitize it.