They have clarified the situation: “You could always report messages from any group to moderators, acts like forwarding. Private chats are still private too – although you could always report a new incoming chat to moderators by using Block > Report. Anyone can check our code and see there were no changes. The FAQ change made it clearer how to report things, including via DSA.”
Honestly I get the feeling the problem they’re having right now isn’t that it was hard to report things to the moderators to action, but rather that telegram is a haven for people who were absolutely there to do unsavory things and were unlikely to report each other.
Perhaps I’ve misunderstood?