We always have been able to place them. Not sure if it was intended or not, but that isn't really my point.
As for your trick, I've used that one many times myself and it usually works, but it seems to just not work with the Mk3 miner. I've only tried that one specific node, but I'm about to try some others so I'll found out if it's that node in particular, or just the Mk3 miner itself.
Edit: Tried it with a limestone node, the Mk3 went down on that one fine, so it seems to specifically be that Uranium node that's causing the issue.