Factorio Forums

In 2.0.72 when dropping items manually (default Z) on the belt they are packed tighter than you can normally do it in older versions (I tested 2.0.7 and 1.1.110 they both worked the same)
It always happens reliably from 2 other user accounts and my own testing. The two attached videos are 2.0.72 and 1.1.110 while 2.0.7 functions the same as 1.1.110.
Seemingly the bug happens in both editor mode and normal freeplay although I only tested the former the freeplay is from other users.
I'd expect the compression of belts to be the same as it used to be and not change to be extremely compact.

Isn't it related to this?

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-231

The solution was, that whenever there is any gap bigger than the standard distance between items on a belt, item can be inserted there and for a (usually) brief moment, the items are squashed together closer than usual. But once the belt starts moving, the gap between the two squashed item extends to the standard size. This change required us to do some fundamental changes to the belt logic, which could introduce a lot of new problems, but since we just wanted this to be resolved in 0.16, we had to do it now.