well, this is really odd… I just created a new project and tried to recreate this, and I get the same result, no matter what combination of options I try, and I tried them all. Tweaked every value, including the hidden ones in the advanced tabs… I wonder if some part of the algorithm was inadvertently broken during the last update and you’re the first to notice.
I just confirmed that this is no change from 3.5. I agree, too far. It would be nice if ties on seconds between voices could have preference settings similar to those for chords.