And it all started way back, over here: removed ThingLinkManager and with it the auto-linking feature and "Simple Mode" by kaikreuzer · Pull Request #1385 · openhab/openhab-core · GitHub. I reported that removal of auto-linking introduced a regression in late May 2020.
Well, it is public (OSH=open smart house). We just do not promote it cause present docs are even shorter than for OH. Its not yet released cause its not “prime time” ready. Please be patient.
We can take forking discussions aside from main one - OH vs HA.
Cheers & happy new year,
Łukasz