Hey boss!
As a member who has been around for nearly the two decades you've heard about I can confirm that d2jsp has been 'face-lifted' several times throughout the years and it's a matter of time, resources, coding, all of that to be considered when making changes. The bump rules vary from section to section on the forums, 4+ hours has been standard for a long time and is in place for what I would assume is the simplest way to apply the time/resources/coding mentioned a moment ago, and make it fair for users across the board to get their topic's visibility in. Your service threads can still be searched for, found using the filters, and noticed following the current bumping rules. There are a few things I could offer as advice, maybe?
I understand it might be frustrating with the topics falling from the first page of the 'ALL' tab so quickly, and the timing not coinciding with the helltide refresh, etc - just hoping to help you get the most out of what is currently at our disposal.
To my knowledge the majority if-not-all of the staff is volunteer and they are people just like you and I who also balance real lives so creating and implementing features like what you are suggesting are nonsensical compared to a very simple rule ' do not bump your topic within 4 hours from the last post. '
Hope this helps, cheers!