The problem in 4.0 was (if i recall correctly), that kickoff could not be resized. I don't know of your mentioned option, but with resizing capabilities it shouldn't be necessary any more. But that's just an opinion, feel free to correct me. I never noticed such a function.
Regarding bugs.kde.org, i heard some complainst about that, but if you really know what you are looking for (which component, which module, crash, wishlist, etc), i can tell you what i do:
I select "Weekly summary statistics", the search for the app and get the total overview, and from there it is (mostly) simple. Problem is, you should have to know where the bug could be. Just my 2 cents. Feel free to tell me a better way