which is a better test?

[snippsat]

and when it is working, there usually isn't even a category i want. if they have a database of the data on that first page, for all packages, and can provide a dump in JSON or CSV, i could design (in Python, of course) a program to make it into a nice page (in HTML, of course). but i don't see a place to get that.

They work for a new site has been going on for quite some time Warehouse.
PyPi/Warehouse is course only not the one way to get info,it's more so that Python package can be distribution in a easy way.
Example Requests has a GitHub page and a Doc page.
Requests PyPi page has more short info.
The important part is pip install requests,this is done bye PyPi/Warehouse so it very easy for user to get it.

[Skaperen]

installing is not the problem. finding the right package is.

[snippsat]

installing is not the problem. finding the right package is.

Awesome Python has nice overview.
Other than that in no magic search engine eg google or PyPi search.
Follow what happens with in the Python community helps to.