I discovered about a week ago that there was a next/future/image component that would be the new image component that had better performance. When I switched to it, pages that used getStaticProps had the images loading instantly and it was very noticeable. I have since been working on my project and did a new commit yesterday that didn't modify the images at all, but the images now load in noticeably slower again (I did not write any code to modify the images between commits).
I then compared two sites, the newest commit and the one with the instant images. While looking at the network tab when clicking on an item, I noticed that the site that loaded the images instantly wasn't refetching the images (because the preview image and the image on the individual page were the same image) whereas the other site refetched the images.
Slower Site Link: https://daylight-website-eight.vercel.app/menu Faster Site Link: https://daylight-website-k0am61hb2-ohshews.vercel.app/menu
When clicking on an item and going to it's page, the speed in which the images load is noticeable.
What could be the reason for this? Could the next/future/image have had a new update (even though I haven't upgraded my next version since last week). Is there a chance that new code I wrote affected it (even though it did not affect the image element or the overall item page at all)?