Yes, It’s more convenient to remember the particular page and the position on that page than to scroll the huge thread up and down. That’s the way the human’s visual memory works. That’s also why we don’t use scrolls IRL as in Antiquity, but now we have codices with pagination. And that’s why it’s more convenient to work with paper books than with ebooks when it comes to professional literature.
IDK what do you mean “barely functional”. For me, that forum was fully functional. Yes, there were some security issues, you better know the details. But when you are developing some stuff, you can change database engine, logic engine and appearance independently, that’s the way modern programming works.
“Ctrl-F” on entire topic when it contains dosens or hundreds of pages? My poor Google Chrome appreciates the joke.