Thank you so much for the code snippet! Sorry for delayed response!
Setting the plugin to show more values did indeed show the target post so the plugin working just fine.
However the snippet you provided doesnt appear to be working (or maybe I need it to work slightly differently***)
For example:
search “12345” shows one post with one make within the custom field
search “1234” shows 3 posts and the first result contains 3 matches from within the custom field (others have fewer)
search “123” shows 30+ posts but the first results only contain 1 match while the target post has more then 45 matches and is shown 17th in the list
*** Is there a way to also apply weight based on the number of matches from within the field? This way a post with more matches shows up first or at least higher in the results?