The measured distance (the unreadable one I reported about) should be displayed in the ruler right next to the cursor, not in the top-left corner. That way you can see it all the time while doing pixel-fine adjustments with the mouse, without having to take your eyes off the cursor to see the measurement, losing certainty that the cursor didn't move by a pixel since you stopped looking at it. Reproducible: Always
This is the behaviour after 2017.