Odd graphic difference booting previous and current kernel

I am trying to understand (and hopefully resolve) an odd visual behavior I am experiencing after selecting the kernel from GRUB. It isn't dramatically affecting operation but this seems an opportunity to better understand kernel configuration.

Description
Normal operation: After selecting the kernel from GRUB, the display goes initially black, then displays the LinuxMint logo. The logo "blinks" (briefly disappears) and is then displayed a second time. After a few seconds, the Cinnamon DE appears and displays the login prompt.

Odd operation: After updating to a new kernel (this first happened with the 6.8.0-50-generic and again, now, with the 6.8.0-53-generic), after selecting the kernel from GRUB, I see the same behavior as above except that the logo is displayed about four times as large and is horizontally stretched. After the "blink" the logo remains large but is now a circle.

When this first happened, my investigation showed that the nvidia diver was no longer being loaded but it was falling back to nouveau. I was able to force it to use nvidia again by setting options to blacklist nouveau and specify some nvidia settings:

echo "blacklist nouveau" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveua.conf
echo "options nvidia NVreg_PreserveVideoMemoryAllocations=1" >> /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf
echo "options nvidia-drm modeset=1 fbdev=1" >> /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf
update-initramfs -c -k $(uname -r)

But that still didn't fix the odd expanded-logo issue. Even more strange, this issue disappeared a week or two later with no specific effort on my part. It just started displaying the correct sized logo again. Then, with the 6.8.0-53-generic update, it is again displaying the expanded-logo.

Since this happens at kernel selection, I assume there must be something different in the build of the two kernels that is causing this difference. It seems I could do some `diff` of `/usr/src` (or something similar?) to see what might be the culprit. I'm looking for guidance on where to look. Again, this is obviously not a critical issue but it seems like a great opportunity to investigate and better understand kernel configuration.

$ uname -r
6.8.0-53-generic

$ cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Linux Mint"
VERSION="22.1 (Xia)"
ID=linuxmint
ID_LIKE="ubuntu debian"
PRETTY_NAME="Linux Mint 22.1"
VERSION_ID="22.1"
HOME_URL="https://www.linuxmint.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://forums.linuxmint.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://linuxmint-troubleshooting-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.linuxmint.com/"
VERSION_CODENAME=xia
UBUNTU_CODENAME=noble

$ inxi -Gs
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU116 [GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER] driver: nvidia v: 550.120
  Device-2: Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    type: USB
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X:
    loaded: nvidia unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa
    gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 2560x1440~120Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: nvidia,swrast
    platforms: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 550.120
    renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER/PCIe/SSE2
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.275 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 39.2 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 36 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 35%

If your computer has a BIOS update available, you may find updating to it changes the behavior yet again. The logistics of mode handling and boot screen image loading varies among drivers, and sometimes changes with kernel updates. You may find if you only just installed recently that the most recent behavior will remain in place for quite some time.

Some of us prevent this silly Windows boot emulation by not using an image to hide boot activity or allow mode switches to annoy. We uninstall or disable Plymouth, and watch text messages scroll by as boot proceeds, typically with text size changing at least once before the login screen appears.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I was serious about wanting to better understand why this might be happening. I have gone to the point of doing a comparison of the kernel config files between the two kernels (6.8.0-49-generic and 6.8.0-50-generic) and did not find anything significant that might explain why one kernel exhibits this behavior and the subsequent kernels do not. I'm no kernel expert but I do have prior experience with assembler/C and 40+ years in DevOps. I will continue to try and understand the mechanism that is causing this. My goal is better understanding what is happening in this process. I did find this which has been informative. If anyone cares to provide some any additional guidance, it is welcome. Meanwhile, I will look elsewhere.