There should be an option to send a private message on a users page, but it’s not there. You can still send private messages, but you have to do it from your own account page, which is counter-intuitive.
On the same general subject (should I start a new topic?), there is a problem with the member search when composing a private message. The magnifying glass from recipient or cc pops up a fairly small window, but the search page has a 400 width table, centre-aligned, which then gets lost off to the right of the window,