Clicking on a thread takes me to the last message.

[F0LLETT]

Its a user option, change it in your profile.

[F0LLETT]

I can't find the profile setting your are describing.
I did find this setting:

"Show most recent posts at the top." (with a checkbox)

...but that's NOT what I want to do. I like the format of oldest message at the top, most recent message at the bottom. It's just that when I click a thread, I like to be taken to the topmost OLDEST message, not the bottom-most recent message, because most times I want to read through the whole thread to catch up.  If I wanted the most recent message, I would have clicked the little icon on the main screen that would have taken me there.

That option should be unticked.