I think the difference is more "model year no longer reliably indicates feature ...

hakfoo on Feb 24, 2019 | parent | context | favorite | on: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB Review

I think the difference is more "model year no longer reliably indicates feature set", not "model year no longer indicates date of manufacture."

This may make finding and pricing spare parts difficult, or categorizing safety and performance metrics.