Analysing BJT circuit
It's not clear in the above schematics where the input is, or how it's coupled.  The reason for the voltage changes, though, is that the capacitor doesn't interfere with the DC biasing of the circuit.  The short, however, does, since it ties the DC level at the NPN base to the DC level at the output.
The biasing of this circuit seems to be dependent on the gain of the individual transistors, an unreliable system since there is a wide (or potentially infinite) range of variation across individual parts and across environmental conditions.  Also, the feedback appears to be positive, since increasing the input (assuming it's coupled to the NPN base) increases the output, so it will increase the gain at the risk of instability.
With the short in the feedback path, it appears that a momentary B-E short on the NPN would turn it off permanently.  Once the NPN stops conducting, so does the PNP, and the load pulls the NPN base to ground full time.  You'd have to have an input signal capable of driving the load to overcome this.