I’ve just had a word with Server Guy and he informed me it’s always been like this?
It hasn't, though. Since the ignore function has been introduced there have been three versions (I think).
1) If someone on your ignore list posted you saw that they had posted but there was a message that said something like "this poster is on your ignore list, click here to view the post" and you could click the link and it would reveal the post. If someone else quoted that poster you would see the quote box in their post with the same message about the poster being on your ignore list and you could click to reveal the post.
2) Up until quite recently if someone was on your ignore list they just didn't appear, at all. You couldn't see that they had posted, and you didn't see if someone else quoted them (which led to a lot of confusion sometimes if you didn't realize that the second person was replying to a post you couldn't see). There was a link at the bottom of the page saying "view ignored content" or something, and if you clicked that it would show you all the posts on that page from anyone on your ignore list. It also meant that you didn't see threads started by people on your ignore list, no matter who else was posting in those threads (which could be a bit frustrating).
3) Currently you don't see any indication that someone on your ignore list has posted, but if someone quotes them you see the quote box and the "this poster is on your ignore list" message with a link to click to reveal the message. As
antmanb said, if you click the link now it takes you back to the original message (which you wouldn't have seen at first) instead of just showing you the quoted part in the other person's message, so it works more like the "show all ignored content" link at the bottom of the page.
Personally, I like the way it is now, because I think it eliminates the problem of people not realizing that a conversation is happening and thinking a post is directed at them or misplaced. But I did like option 2, too, because I have trouble resisting clicking on the link and then why bother having people on your ignore list if you're just going to do more work to read their posts anyway?
