Wix-Search api vs. Query with Wix-data api

I am wondering what the differences and benefits are with the search-api applied on my products versus querying products with the wix-data api. I see that I do not get all the product fields with the search api. So why would I use the search-api on my products instead of just querying it?

Is there a performance benefit from using the search-api? I.e. do I get the searched results faster than querying the products?