Every time the request index feature “breaks” just take a page that is currently indexed, edit in a link to the content that you want indexed, then request index on that page.

That or waiting 24 hours and trying to RI both pages has always worked for me.

While the feature is suspended, the #1 thing would be to have links on the pages that are currently indexed to the content that you want indexed.

That sounds obvious, but many sites are setup in a way where that’s not really the case and they mainly rely on their sitemap.