For those job searching for 6+ months, any recent differences in interview questions or activities?

I lost my job in early 2025 so I have been job searching for over a year. When I started looking last year I found the interview process had become way more grueling and nit-picky. Lots of drilling down into my responses about how I pick and execute methods, why that many participants or why those types of participants, how I do analysis, etc.

All fair questions in an ideal world, but every time I would get feedback that I wasn't selected because I didn't do research the way they do research. I have been in this job for a very long time, my methods are sound, and there are many research projects where there's more than one valid approach. It wasn't about me not explaining my reasoning well enough, but simply that I didn't do things the exact robotic way they do. For example, they want 20 participants for a usability study rather than following the standard that Jakob Nielsen laid out decades ago.

The last few months of interviews I've noticed a huge shift. My most recent interviews hardly focused at all on micromanaging how research is done, but heavily focused on interpersonal skills (ex how to deal with a difficult stakeholder) and what my philosophy is on UX research and its value.

All of the jobs I've applied for over the past year are roughly the same: senior level IC at FAANG or adjacent companies.

My theory is that after focusing so much on hunting for a "unicorn" that fits an exact mold last year, some companies realized they hired people who didn't fundamentally understand UXR and just knew how to take orders. They needed more hand holding for the rest of the job. Also, maybe they tried replacing UXRs with AI and realized there is a lot more we do than just collect and analyze data.

I am curious if anyone else has experienced this shift?