Thinking about this in game design terms rather than realism:
Oddly, hiding and moving silently are much much different in this edition than they were in previous editions
AD&D
Move silently was explicitly part of movement, but reduced movement speed to 1/3 normal. AD&D lacked a defined perception skill.
Hide required the character to remain "virtually motionless", but had no defined action cost.
Hide required concealment (apparently equivalent to lightly obscured in 5e).
3.x
Both Hide and Move Silently were explicitly part of movement, but the roll was a -5 if you moved more than half your speed, -20 if you ran or engaged in combat.
Hide was resisted (no action required) by Spot, Move Silently was resisted (no action required) by Listen.
A character could attempt to retry a failed Spot or Listen as a Move action.
Hide required cover or concealment, and no-one currently watching you, even casually, so you generally needed either a distraction, or total cover/concealment.
4e
Hide and Move Silently were merged into Stealth.
Stealth was at -5 if you moved more than 10', -10 if you ran, impossible in combat. Stealth was resisted (no action required) by Perception.
No search action that I could find.
Hide required cover or concealment, both to become hidden and remain hidden, unless the creature was distracted.
So in every prior edition, hiding was part of movement, and perception was mostly passive. That doesn't mean the 5th edition way of doing things is bad, just different, but it might be bad.
What do players and DMs actually expect?
My experience is that people do not expect perception checks to require an action for normal hazards, but something that does require an action is usually impossible without an action -- the DM won't even give you a roll unless you say "I'm searching the bookshelf" or whatever. I think the actual expected behavior of perception checks is something like:
Perception Checks: Perception checks are normally done as part of another action, and cover finding things that the DM thinks would reasonably be found when performing that action. For example, a DM might use a perception check to determine whether a character walking down a dungeon passage notices that one of the pebbles is actually a gemstone. Characters may choose to move slowly (granting advantage) or swiftly (granting disadvantage) if they choose.
A character may also take time to actively search, in which case the DM should set difficulty based on what they're doing. This might make previously difficult or impossible tests straightforward or even automatic (for example, if there's a key on the top of a doorframe, someone passing through the room will never spot it because they have no reason to look there, whereas someone who actually says they're searching that location finds it automatically, and someone searching the room should get a roll to decide if they check) but generally takes quite a bit of extra time.
Of course, that's about outside of combat. In combat, it really comes down to plausibility and balance. I think the expected behavior is something like
Stealth: stealth is normally rolled as part of another action; it may make that other action slower or more difficult but is not its own action. However, if you are trying to hide from someone who has already spotted you and is paying attention to you, you typically must use an action to throw their attention off. The DM may relax this rule if you become heavily obscured or move behind total cover, then exit your hiding place in an unexpected way.
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Thinking about this in game design terms rather than realism:
Oddly, hiding and moving silently are much much different in this edition than they were in previous editions
AD&D
3.x
4e
So in every prior edition, hiding was part of movement, and perception was mostly passive. That doesn't mean the 5th edition way of doing things is bad, just different, but it might be bad.
What do players and DMs actually expect?
My experience is that people do not expect perception checks to require an action for normal hazards, but something that does require an action is usually impossible without an action -- the DM won't even give you a roll unless you say "I'm searching the bookshelf" or whatever. I think the actual expected behavior of perception checks is something like:
Of course, that's about outside of combat. In combat, it really comes down to plausibility and balance. I think the expected behavior is something like