So, I straight up stole some code from another template and it worked. Just to give credit where it's due and to give someone who eventually stumbles onto this thread some closure (as this seems like I'm probably not the only person that would want the thread title as part of the link)

I ripped my code from here specifically: https://github.com/ItzMeDwii/nodebb-theme-azn-oxideold/blob/master/templates/partials/categories/lastpost.tpl So special shoutouts to https://github.com/ItzMeDwii/nodebb-theme-azn-oxideold

What I did to make it work:

I modified (using customizer) /partials/categories/lastpost.tpl from

<div class="card" style="border-color: {../bgColor}">
	{{{each ./posts}}}
	<!-- IF @first -->
	<div component="category/posts">
		<p>
			<a href="{config.relative_path}/user/{../user.userslug}">{buildAvatar(posts.user, "sm", true)}</a>
			<a class="permalink" href="{config.relative_path}/topic/{../topic.slug}<!-- IF ../index -->/{../index}<!-- ENDIF ../index -->">
				<small class="timeago" title="{../timestampISO}"></small>
			</a>
		</p>
		<div class="post-content">
			{../content}
		</div>
	</div>
	<!-- ENDIF @first -->
	{{{end}}}

	<!-- IF !../posts.length -->
	<div component="category/posts">
		<div class="post-content">
			[[category:no_new_posts]]
		</div>
	</div>
	<!-- ENDIF !../posts.length -->
</div>

To the following:

<div class="card" style="border-color: {../bgColor}">
	{{{each ./posts}}}
	<!-- IF @first -->
	<div component="category/posts">
			<a href="{config.relative_path}/user/{../user.userslug}">{buildAvatar(posts.user, "sm", true)}</a>
			<div class="title">
			    <a href="{config.relative_path}/topic/{../topic.slug}<!-- IF ../index -->/{../index}<!-- ENDIF ../index -->">{../topic.title}</a>
			    - <small class="timeago" title="{../timestampISO}"></small>
			</div>
		<div class="post-content">
			{../content}
		</div>
	</div>
	<!-- ENDIF @first -->
	{{{end}}}

	<!-- IF !../posts.length -->
	<div component="category/posts">
		<div class="post-content">
			[[category:no_new_posts]]
		</div>
	</div>
	<!-- ENDIF !../posts.length -->
</div>

The resulting markup looks like this:

with "borderlands 3 LFG - 4 minutes ago" being a clickable link.

Adding an override (appearance -> custom content) of

.card .title{
    font-weight: 700;
}

Will give you a nicer bolding than what you see there, but you still may want some additional styling.

I am not at all sure why topic.title wasn't working without being in its own div, but it's working now.

Thanks,

Community

Damien Jay