Did they buff the Ender Dragon? Or did I get hit at the worst possible angle?

I just died to the dragon in the first play through I’ve had in a few updates. The fight was going fine, then I went to get into the fountain as the dragon went to perch on it. I must have hit the wings and I got LAUNCHED. Like 1000 blocks easily, like no land within render distance for several seconds (had slow falling potion) When I could see land again, it was too far away to Pearl to. I just had to slowly fall into the void with all the time in the world to think about how unfair that was.

I’ve fought the dragon a bunch of times, and been launched a bunch of times, but never ever ever have I gone from the middle of the island to ~100 blocks away from the edge. Is this a new thing with the recent updates? Or am I just unlucky? Latest version on Java if that makes a difference