My experience is similar. Opus, especially Opus 4.5, understands my intentions better even when poorly phrased, and more consistently follows my instructions to do only what's necessary and no more.

As far as I can tell, the distinctive feature of my workflow is that I'm giving it small, contained single-commit-sized tasks and limited context. For instance: "For all controller `output()` functions under `Controller/Edit/` and `Controller/Report/`, ensure that they check `Auth::userCanManage`." Others seem to be taking bigger swings.