Questions about Blender 3.X version AO baking!

Did the algorithm of AO baking change after Blender 3.X version?
This is the effect of version 2.93:

This is the result of version 3.X:

I think the 2.93 version of the AO masking effect is more correct.

Wasn’t there a change in the way how the numbers of samples are determined and/or noise treshold ??
I’m not sure how this get into play using an old file or using a new one… ?

( Didn’t found something here https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes … but i could have been overlooking this… )

Could it be something like this ??

I used cycles path tracing mode baking AO, used to bake the volume shadows between the hairs.
Snipaste_2023-05-24_20-47-51