The component's behavior HAS NOT CHANGED when it comes to contact pictures.

What was correct in the earlier version should be correct in the newest one (no code changes have been made).

You are experiencing issues related to your environment. They can be cache related, overrides that are not up-to-date...

If you upgraded from a very old version, yes, there has been changes in the component. But never in the creation of images. It's been the same since v2.0.

You can trust me, I created the component.

I have no idea about the MAX value you keep referring to. There is no MAX value for the setting of pictures width and height.

'Process images' means that images are transformed to fit the width and height you set.
Images are resized, and cropped if necessary. If you set filters, it also filters your image (to make it black & white for instance). It does all of that at once and creates a NEW image.

Images won't be modified if you do not use the 'process pictures' option. Therefore, it will use the ORIGINAL and try to fit it inside the allocated space with the width and height you have set.

Either option you choose, aspect ratios ARE PRESERVED by the component. If it was not the case, it would be a pity indeed and make it unusable.

If you are having issues with aspect ratios, it is probably coming from an interference with something else on the page (CSS conflict for instance).