There was quite a bit of news discussion about this while back. Late last year, Apple settled a lawsuit with Pinn over the use of Pinn patents involved with active noise cancellation. Speculation has been that it is possible Apple may had had to alter their ANC as conditions of the settlement.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has settled one of its ongoing lawsuits targeting AirPods technologies before a retrial was supposed to begin,
www.benzinga.com
So we do have a possible motive.
Edit: I believe there were 2 lawsuits, here is info on the other. I’m not sure if it’s settled.
A patent troll lawsuit against Apple may be the reason behind a recent reduction in active noise cancellation for AirPods Max.
appleinsider.com
The above article states 3 separate instances where Apple has altered ANC in their devices as a result of the patents and litigation in question. It is possible that they are continuing to tweak it.