Keyboard actions/shortcuts and active windows on Mac OS

With recent updates (on Mac OS Tahoe 26.1), something has changed with keyboard toggle shortcuts and the ability to work in the landing window. For example, if I toggle from another app to Outlook, I need to click on the highlighted message in the inbox whereas in the past, the highlighted message would be "active", so I could then use further keyboard actions (enter to open a message, arrows to navigate) to work seamlessly. This extra "click" has really slowed me down. I need to do it all the time now. Is this a new design glitch?