Yes, that was our issue too.
CatalogConfig.contentViewControls.ProductsBackendDefinitionName.views.ProductsBackendMaster.config
Remove:
<remove name="search" />
and also remove
<item commandName="insert_command_sf_ec_prdct_generalproduct"commandButtonType="Standard" isFilter="False" cssClass="sfMainAction" text="Create a product"wrapperTagKey="Li" widgetType="Telerik.Sitefinity.Web.UI.Backend.Elements.Widgets.CommandWidget"isSeparator="False" name="MenuCreatesf_ec_prdct_generalproduct"type:this="Telerik.Sitefinity.Web.UI.Backend.Elements.Config.CommandWidgetElement, Telerik.Sitefinity" />
This second one created the "create a general product button". I don't know how either of those got into this file because it hasn't been edited manually.