Is it possible to use a relative time - such as the last 24 hours or the last 5 days?
That could really turn into an easy replacement for the old “best of”. You’d start with the whole site, but could easily use the “advanced” tools from there to limit it to a single category (nee board) or group of categories (e.g. Personal finances).
I suspect, though, that the bulk of your last week worth of research was looking this and not finding it.
–Peter