I think search could be made an alias of "ws". Execute search actions a number of times (consuming time) until you actually find the secret door.
That way, newbie players would not have to mash buttons, but perception would still have an influence (the character would spend less time looking for the secret door, decreasing chance for enemies to come, etc.)
The problem of just making search for secret doors succeed automatically without doing this is that perception becomes irrelevant, plus, you eliminate the factor of "will I be able to find the door before the enemy in the corridor gets to where I am?"