And now a search that resulted in ~1k$ a month worth of spending is crippled to a point where I stopped running it.
It happens -- not often, but it does happen more often than it should, and that is unfortunate.
A few years ago eBay made major changes to the entire search mechanism including an entirely new syntax for search commands, eliminating wild card searches entirely. I had close to a hundred complicated individual searches bookmarked that suddenly stopped returning results, and each had to be entirely recreated from scratch. I was not happy about that, so I can certainly understand where you are coming from.
Major changes to the site's search mechanics are rare, but changes do happen. But even relatively minor category changes and filter changes can affect the way buyers search and sellers list -- and adding new item-specifics to listings is a major burden on sellers.
There is no guarantee that a search that works today will continue to work indefinitely. Not all changes will be backwards compatible. That is true of eBay and also of other sites in general.
What is the alternative? Forbidding eBay to make any changes that might break any possible existing search? That is just not feasible. No site could operate under that constraint for very long.
If running that particular search provided value to you beyond the amount of spending you made using it, it is likely worth spending a little time to recreate it so you can continue to use it. If you run into problems trying to get a search working again, feel free to post whatever general questions or specific details you want to share; someone will likely be able to offer some suggestions to make the search work better for you.
