Maximum app capacity on dock decreased

The app dock on iPadOS previously had enough capacity to store up to 18 apps and/or folders. iPadOS 18, however, seems to have decreased the app/folder capacity to 14. I noticed this earlier today when I did a hard factory reset of my iPad (10th Generation), which had maintained the 18-app dock capacity even after I updated the OS from iPadOS 17 to iPadOS 18 months ago and did a previous factory reset days ago importing data from a recent iCloud backup.

I had to move three of the apps I had on the dock (Google Drive, CBS Sports and Apple Weather) to two of my custom folders because the dock no longer had room to store them independently alongside the other apps I stored there.

Ironically, the dock still stretches closer to the old maximum capacity when the App Dock and Suggested and Recent App settings are turned on, rather than maintaining a consistent maximum width/capacity irrespective of whether those settings are active.