When I click either the title or the little curved arrow, it jumps me to the very bottom of the thread, even though there are unread messages near the middle

I think that's a different problem entirely. The icon allows me to jump to the first unread post just fine, and clicking the thread title shouldn't be jumping you anywhere. Sometimes when you click on the jump link, you'll be taken to the first unread post before everything is loaded and then you're somewhat off, but that almost always results in having to scroll down to see the first unread. And that happened on the old board too.

I like the new jump system. I like the new board overall as well. I'm going to wait until Tom says everything he has planned is completed...then complain