Switching tabs in safari stopped working properly

I recently updated my iPad to the latest iOS version and now when I go into safari and open the tab window to switch tabs it’s very inconsistent.

Some times it will open the tab window I press on after a few presses (often times I have to make a slightly held down press, followed by a release before the context menu appears, followed by a second short press) but it seems to only work sometimes, and it seems to be very dependent on timing or just random chance.

At first nothing I did would let me change to another tab in the tabs window, then I moved them all to a new group then back again and deleted the empty group and it allowed me to change tab in this inconsistent way.

Before the update I would just go into the tabs window and press on a tab and it would switch to it instantly. The tabs below the address bar while viewing a site still works the same as they did before but I think they are clunky to navigate when you have several tabs open and quickly want to go to one in the opposite end of the list so I’ve gotten used to not using them.

like what the ****? Things were working fine before, why change something like that for the worse?! I certainly hope this is just a bug and not a “feature” for the sake of making changes to justify development funding or whatever…