Yamaha R-S202 and MacBook Air M1 OS 12.3.1, sound output via Bluetooth

I have a Yamaha R-S202 receiver which always played music from my MacBook Air M1 via Bluetooth, without explicitly changing the sound output device to the Yamaha. Once the pairing was established, just turning on the Yamaha and setting it to Bluetooth made the sound come out of it. But after I updated to OS 12.3.1, I needed to open the Sound preference panel make this change when playing, say, a YouTune video. Is this a design change or an unintended consequence of the update? That means I'll have to change the Sound setting back in order to get any sound out of the MacBook when the Yamaha is turned off.