Please check to see if the old gamme build '2.50.3rc1' has these issues, so that I can narrow down when they were introduced.
I have the sources for 2.50.3rc1 (not the same as 2.53!, and 2.50.1, but not 2.50.2 or 2.50.0. The source for 1.8 may be perma-lost.
If I can ever get source packs for 1.02, 1.84, 1.90, 1.92, 2.10, 2.10.2, 2.50.0, and (pure, not revisional) 2.50.2, I may make branches for them, so that the code for each 'releadsed' build is available for comparison.