I have seemingly found an issue with the shipping example code for Nested Malleable VIs. Another user has verified that he saw the same behavior in 2019.
I am working through the examples and the presentation from NIWeek 2019. In running the Lesson 2b code (C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2019\examples\Malleable VIs\Nested Malleable VIs) I found the Equals.vi in the class was not being leveraged and the search failed. When I went to my LabVIEW 2018 machine and ran the Lesson 2b.vi the code worked to find the element by correctly leveraging the in-class Equals