URL with built-in JQL query string causes Jira to crash when targeted issue is not found

[Montana Fox]

[Jira Server 8.20.13] We have an outside system which has projects which may be related to existing issues in our instance of Jira. The project has a field which automatically generates a hyperlink URL to Jira which includes a JQL string to look for any issues containing specific words related to the given project. It should take the user to Jira and show them a list of any matching issues. The developer who programmed the URLs was using the following format:

{JiraBaseURL}/browse/ABC-1234?jql={JQL string}

However, the issue with key ABC-1234 does not actually exist. Instead of Jira returning a page with issues matching the JQL and also showing that ABC-1234 doesn't exist, it caused errors and Jira crashed altogether. I had to reboot the Jira app server and re-start the Jira service in order to get it up and running again.

I informed the developer that the following URL format is more appropriate:

{JiraBaseURL}/issues/?jql={JQL string}

This appears to have solved the problem, and Jira has remained stable since they updated the URLs to this format.

My question is why this is forcing Jira to completely shut down and have to be restarted. If I copy/paste the same incorrect URL into the browser, it shows matching result issues and also shows that ABC-1234 doesn't exist. No errors. Jira keeps running.

Why is it ok if I manually paste the URL into the browser, but causing a fatal error if clicked from another outside site? Is this a known problem? Shall I report a bug to Atlassian, or is this intended outcome?