I'm not sure exactly what you mean by your "the linking-to-the-first-milepost-in-a-thread-instead-of-the relevant-one thingy," but if you mean clicking on a thread title in the search results takes you to the first post in the default page of the thread - it was that way in the old search also. You have to click on the link inside the actual quoted post, below the "Posted By..." link.