I think they’re trying to implement a sort of “smart prediction” thing, where it assumes that if you go back the link you clicked wasn’t relevant. And so it tries to remove closely related results. Which works the opposite if you get two results from the same page and you click the wrong one. Which makes looking up technical or programming related issues a nightmare.
The main deflector or deflector array is crucial for stopping microscopic particles from wrecking most ships at relativistic speeds, and is technically called the “navigational deflector” for that reason.
At sub-light speeds those same particles are barely noticable, if at all, when stopped by the normal shields, basic deflectors or even hull plates. Which why they don’t modify it while at warp, and pretty much only use it while at sub-light speeds.
In-universe it was designed to serve multiple purposes and be used in research or defense of other ships. And I seem to remember there being some sort of lockout where the ship wont go to warp if it can’t engage the deflector. Since even a small particle cloud could destroy the entire ship a fraction of a second after it set off.