v1.67 of vscode made colorization of matching brackets the default, see Enable bracket pair colorization by default. So it was just updating vscode to v1.67 that made the change for you.
Editor > Bracket Pair Colorization: Enabled
the new default is enabled
Uncheck the box to disable it.
v1.67 Release Notes: Bracket Pair colorization Enabled by Default:
Bracket pair colorization can also be disabled just for specific
languages:
"[typescript]": {
"editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled": false
}