As the title asks: Did the VFX brightness get turned up?

At first I thought it was just me - as in literally me and a worsening of my light sensitivity - but a few friends have commented on it as well.

I ran a vLC earlier. A trial I love, but one I have to run sparingly due to the abundance of effects. It was literally blinding for me in places, much more so than previously. I can think of a legitimate reason for this, like ZOS are bringing the effects all up to the same level in preparation for the (much) anticipated VFX sliders, but a warning would have been nice. Or is this simply a bug or unintended consequence, or did ZOS just feel that the flash needed even more flash?