Explorer (web app version) has been broken for a while now

At first it wasn't working at all, now, when looking at the current position for any given game still in theory, it jumps back to any earlier point—could be the last-named variation, I'm not sure, but it means we must either manually enter the next set of moves (no option that I can find to paste FEN), or switch to the mobile app if possible* (in which it does work).

Hopefully whatever broke this is reversible/fixable? Use of the opening explorer is an important learning tool, and workarounds make progress (not to mention rate of play) slower.

*note that Vote Chess is still not available in the mobile app, so to look up VC games' book positions requires looking them up by either entering the moves manually or using a third-party database.

This is somewhat frustrating and surely shouldn't be the case on what is generally considered the world's premier chess website.

It's not broken, exactly, just that the site changed the Opening link away from Explorer to the Opening pages instead. 

Well, well-spotted, but I'd say that's the nature of how it is broken, not an indicator of it not being broken.

It is not supposed to be a link to the Openings tool that stops at the last named opening, it is supposed to be a link to the database overall so that we can use it whenever we are still in theory—surely such a change was not deliberate? It just makes it less useful for no benefit.

My understanding is that it was a design change, though I don't know the reason.

Certainly it only makes it less useful to the user, since there's nothing that this provides that the full Explorer feature didn't, and good deal of value that it no longer provides that it used to.

From a site/business perspective, at best I can think that maybe they'd like to reduce server load by disincentivizing use of certain parts of the site, but surely a low-data static information resource like the explorer is hardly the place to cut back, if so

I didn't quite understand what you mean.

I also just noticed today that both options are available. The opening name links to the Opening page. The icon in the far right goes to Explorer still.

Aha, thank you! What an odd way to rearrange it, especially without any kind of "Look what's new" message to explain where stuff has been moved to.