I DO think tumblr's dev team has been instructed to constantly implement new features and that's why they keep tweaking the UI in goofy ways. I imagine this is an upper management thing, so even if we say "well don't change anything and just maintain the status quo" they'll continue to make other changes anyway.
I will admit I REALLY like the recent improvements they've added to tumblr's search (you can exclude terms now!! you can search multiple tags!! and time frames!!) so it's not like they're incapable of adding useful features. it might be mutually beneficial for us as users if we were more vocal about things we want and don't want. Some features I'd like to see added:
the return of hover text!! remember when we had that?
ability to embed videos in reblogs
ANIMATED GIF ICONS!!!!!!!!!!!!
the ability to turn off other people's animated gif icons
the ability to filter original posts on a user's ENTIRE blog, not just a tag/search
more html support, like what if we could build tables
adding reactions to replies! I'm glad we can like them more but it'd be nice if we could take this further
embeddable tiktoks?? I don't even use tiktok but I remember trying to embed one in like 2020 and I'm surprised we still can't! even vines were able to be embedded
being able to search in your DMs. not being able to do this is why I tend to redirect mutuals to discord
MUTING USERS POSTS/COMMENTS WITHOUT BLOCKING THEM! just cause I don't want to see someone's posts doesn't mean I don't want us to never interact ever
a mutual-only dashboard feed
a feed for the blogs you're subscribed to
get rid of tumblr tv lmao I've literally never used it
"mark as read" button for communities without opening them
please dear god no AI shit unless it's a way for me to filter/block it easier
several of these I've submitted support tickets for under "feedback", and if there's anything you feel strongly about I suggest you do too!