By my reading, the center core was using three engine burns for more efficient boost-back and re-entry burns. The side cores and typical F9 boosters (afaik) always use single engines for those and occasionally three-engine burns at landing, so three engine-ing all three burns would be 4 more relights than any previous core.
So, an equal number of "relights" of the entire rocket but more engine relights, and engine relights are the relevant unit for ignition fluid consumption.
Boostback and reentry burns are always 3 engines. Landing burns are often 2 engine and often 1-3-1, usually on the drone ship.
The unique part of the GovSat "failed to expend" mission a few weeks ago was not cutting off the outer two engines some time before hitting the surface, not that it used three engines at all.
No, three engine burns are typical for boostback/re-entry. In many of the webcasts you can see the initial round plume turn into a rectangle as the two outboard engines ignite.
So, an equal number of "relights" of the entire rocket but more engine relights, and engine relights are the relevant unit for ignition fluid consumption.