I think it was always actually importing as float, since that's the only numeric type json has. But what they definitely changed is that the float-to-string conversion will always show the .0 even if it rounds to a whole number, to make it clear that it's not an integer.
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But before it if I used
if dictionary[key] == 1
it worked because there was 1
now there 1.0
and 1.0 != 1