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.
It seems to have been fixed since my first post. Back then it didn't give you any option to click on the link inside the quotes. (And I do remember how the old search used to work)
The moderator drop-down is still there, though