Haven't used Plasma in a while, so I'm sort of a noob, running it in Manjaro 17.1.10. Was wondering why when I select 'Home' as a place in the location tab of the Configure Desktop GUI. The Home folder's contents are displayed recursively (the folders inside the Home folder are shown on my desktop instead of a single Home folder)? Typing in a location and specifying my home folder produced the same result. Any help with this one out there?

You selected your /home folder to show on your desktop, so the contents of that folder are shown, as expected.
The default desktop layout now is the Folder View, as opposed to the previous Desktop layout, which by default is an empty desktop, not an actual folder at all.

You can switch to this layout, and then either an application icon or folder view widget that points to your /home.

I've used Plasma for a long time, and do not recall a vanilla, default setup having such a folder or icon, but it could easily be something your distro has added in the past, perhaps switching layouts may show this for you.

How did this Home icon behave for you before? did it open Dolphin , or was it a folder view widget?