Your query works ok for me (substituting my list names) so the logic is ok.
Are your "work" named lists Smart Lists or Normal Lists? If they are Smart Lists then the "list....." search parameters wont work, they only work on Normal lists. This may be affecting the smartlist.
Try creating a smartlist with only the "hasSubtasks:true" parameter, if that works then add your "list......" parameters next and see what happens.

Hi cobrastyle,
One thing to watch for is if this Smart List is named with 'work' in the title, because then listContains would match this Smart List and could affect what displays.

Also, is it possible some of the tasks that are showing have subtasks that are completed? Those would still show with hasSubtasks:true.

(martingchapman, listContains will work with Smart Lists as well, so for example this would be a valid "filter" for other Smart Lists.)

martingchapman's idea for separating the criteria is a good way to figure out what the criteria are doing that's unexpected, so that's a good way to figure out what's happening.

If you're using the web/desktop app it's also helpful to review the search options for a search to make sure it's being handled the way you expect.

Last, just in case you're using the older web app you may want to switch to the newer web app. The only reason my mind goes there is that both search operators are only available in the newer app. This is not likely if you're seeing your subtasks correctly though, because they're only available there too. :)

Definitely strange, so keep us posted on what you find!

(martingchapman, listContains will work with Smart Lists as well, so for example this would be a valid "filter" for other Smart Lists.)
Sorry, my mistake - Martin.

Thanks everyone - I appreciate the feedback!

The problem seems to be that hasSubtasks:true includes completed subtasks, which is giving me unexpected (for me) results. If I delete the completed subtasks, then the primary task is removed from my search criteria, and that is what I was going for. I treat the main task something like a category. If only there was a "hasIncompleteSubtasks:true" option!

- - - - - -
Overall I'm trying to structure my lists with the ability to know where a subtask comes from, so I'm exploring a variety of ideas. It's entirely possible I'm over-thinking it. ;-)

Thanks again!

Thanks for the feedback there! You can vote on this idea for searching for tasks with incomplete subtasks like you're looking for.

In the meantime, one other thing that could help is to move the completed subtasks in batches (you could search for isSubtask:true status:completed to find these) to a particular list or something else.

However, based on your last paragraph maybe that wouldn't be that helpful here! :)

Let us know if we can ever help with anything else.

Ohh - that's a compelling idea because I don't want to lose my completed tasks; they frequently have reference information on "how I did it" which is nice in case I have to do it again much later.

I've voted for the suggestion idea; though it's pretty old and I don't have much hope for it. One of the ideas in there was to search for subtasks that had no subtasks and are incomplete...

Off to try something new - thanks again!