Oh my gosh, that is so simple, yet so hard to get into my head. Yes, I have just tried it and it works great.
For example:

1. Find Text: blank, and Find Format: bodyText style, First Left Indent 11 pt
2. Change Text: blank, and Change Format: turn on some feature that has an on and off but will not cause significant change to the document, such as Ignore Optical Margin
3. Find All
4. Clear Formatting from find/change
5. Find Text: blank, and Find Format: bodyText style, Ignore Optical Margin = OFF
6. Change Text: blank, and Change Format: turn off Ignore Optical Margin, and set Left Indent to 11 pt
7. Change All

The result: the bodyText style paragraphs will all have 11 pt first line indent.

No, find/change can’t find non-specific amounts like that, unfortunately. (Though a script could be written.)
I agree with you about Word users! :-)
But in most cases, the best option is to simply strip out most of the overrides. See this post:

Import Word Files into InDesign, Remove Local Formatting but Keep Italics and Bold

Jongware’s site is no more, so I put his script here: creativepro.com/files/jongware/binaries/MagicObjectSwapper.zip

Jongware’s site is no more, so I put the newest version he had here: creativepro.com/files/jongware/binaries/tirechanger.jsx.zip

Jongware’s site is no more, so I posted this here: creativepro.com/files/jongware/binaries/CopySupInfSettings.zip