No need to play with the leaf/UP settings: those are handled automatically. Actually, you should get more results as a leaf rather than as an UP.

Still, you should have about 10 times more results from a what's new search, so for some reason, probably outside your control, search results are being dropped before getting back to you.

So, just be patient and every once in a while see if removing one or two of the connections (thus letting a new connection come in) helps with results. I'll ask around and see if there is a better way to get connected to better UP's. Sorry for not being able to give a better answer, but Merry Christmas anyway.