The first is "7.1.1503" and has 895 results, and they aren't html pages, they're things like directories containing that string.
The second is strings like "7 (1503)", and has 1,700+ results, and they are the html pages.
Puppet, Chef, Ansible and the other CFG Management systems work with the current numbering system like it is now, we have no intention of changing it ever again.
I'm suggesting that you use 7.1.1503 instead of 7 (1503) *on the website*. I don't think that Puppet, Chef, Ansible, or any other configuration management system parses webpages. They look at things like /etc/centos-release, which is 7.1.1503, and I think that's fine.
I am not suggesting that you revert to 7.1.
The CentOS-7 Base OS is still there, it is free for anyone to use, it is being maintained as always. If you don't want to use it, great. That is your choice.
CentOS: love it or leave it! My new employer uses Debian for their large cluster.
-- greg