There was a thread about this some time ago (after the release); maybe someone can link it.
A factor in the AI's evaluation of peace offers has been added against the number of additional created fragments, and if you would have studied e.g. Novgorod splits before and after the change it would have shown to have shifted the probability distribution somewhat towards less created fragments. At the same time, I can't make this factor too important because it would lead to the AI preferring pretty borders over provinces that are actually more useful for it in game terms. Not saying the algorithm is perfect - it makes pretty inane choices still and will be tweaked further.
In retrospect I should simply not have put this in a patch note since people have shown to interpret it in a black and white manner. As for OP, beware of confirmation bias.
A factor in the AI's evaluation of peace offers has been added against the number of additional created fragments, and if you would have studied e.g. Novgorod splits before and after the change it would have shown to have shifted the probability distribution somewhat towards less created fragments. At the same time, I can't make this factor too important because it would lead to the AI preferring pretty borders over provinces that are actually more useful for it in game terms. Not saying the algorithm is perfect - it makes pretty inane choices still and will be tweaked further.
In retrospect I should simply not have put this in a patch note since people have shown to interpret it in a black and white manner. As for OP, beware of confirmation bias.