RDR 2.3 doesn't clean links (only via contextmenu)

Make sure your whitelist isn't empty. If it is, add a dummy entry and RDR should work fine again. What I'm curious about is why you deleted the default filters, they're defaults for some reason... any explanation highly appreciated.

Can I get 1.x back?

Sure, just go to the history page and select whatever version you want. 1.1.1 is the last version to support the old concept.