I've been using macOS Tahoe since launch day, and was always curious why window controls (stoplights) felt 'harder' to use vs earlier versions of macOS.
It's because they're effectively 26% smaller.
Attached videos: one from Sequoia 15.7.2. Note the pointer is 'sharp' vs the Tahoe pointer which is softer and more rounded (why did they need to change it in the first place?!). The 'x' appears when the control can be interacted with. Try clicking without the x? doesn't work.
Sequoia Stoplights and pointer
The stoplight window controls aren't smaller per se, but the activation area for the mouse pointer is. It appears Apple have made the change from the white tip being the effective click point (Sequoia and every version of Mac OS before it), to the black area being the click point in Tahoe.
For larger controls, it's largely irrelevant, but for smaller controls, it means that the target area is effectively smaller:
By my maths, the Sequoia controls have a clickable area of ~51,472px²; Tahoe it's 38,013px².
That's a reduction of 26%, on an already small control.
Now time for the rant: why change something that was working well? And HOW did this get missed? I'm so fed up with Tahoe, Liquid Glass, and designers who don't understand UX or usability running Apple's software design.
I'm hoping by posting this Apple will sit up and notice, and fix it in a future version, like they did with the window edge controls.