Transition to Gimp 3

[Ofnuts]

The old behavior still exists as Edit > Paste as > Floating data. The new behavior is equivalent to the old Edit > Paste plus Layer > To new layer(*)  and as far as I can tell what is copied is as before: the smallest rectangle that holds the selection.

   

I have been using 2.4, 2.6, 2.8 and 2.10 and the only benefit I ever saw with the floating selection is:

1. You can paste on things that aren't layers (masks and channels)
   
2. It may save some RAM
   

But for #2 in modern PCs, RAM is hardly an issue, and the benefit of having a plain layer on which you can perform any operation (including painting) has always outweighed the RAM usage.

(*) if there are no "unmerged" filters, because here the real problem with V3 is the non-destructive editing, that sort of works but introduces a lot of kinks in the UI.