I am curious if the search fiunction has been altered. It used to give different results based on if you searched by newest, recently updated, last activity etc, but now newest has shown the same results today it did a month ago, with the top model have an account over a year old. Newest and last activity seem identical.

Did MM change how search tabs work?

Yeah, they are giving "top-of-the-page" priority to paid members.
Has become quite cumbersome, as I use it to search for newest members.
New way is another user-unfriendly feature!