Deleting rows that cross merged cells, I feel like I'm losing my mind.

I just got a new work laptop, and I thought I had it all set back up the way I like it.

I use an Excel sheet every single day for work and I've been using the same sheet for years. I use a lot of merged cells for what I do, and ever since I've been using this sheet, to delete a row I don't need, all I ever had to do was right-click on the row number and click delete row, and it would leave the merged cells alone and just shrink the merged area to whatever was covered minus that row.

Now it's highlighting all rows included in the merged cell when I left- or right-click the row number, and Google said what I'm trying to do is impossible, despite being able to do it perfectly fine for years.

if I right click an individual, unmerged cell, and click delete, it gives me the option then to delete the whole row, and it works as expected with the merged areas. I've checked all the settings and I didn't see anything that would seem to have anything to do with what I want, so am I crazy? Am I imagining the last 3 years of using this sheet?