CI/CD component input JSON strings being incorrectly converted to ruby string representations

On gitlab.com component input strings are being 'converted'. Below is a simple reproducer.

---
# .gitlab-ci.yml
include:
  - local: 'component.yaml'
    inputs:
      json: '[{"test":"123"}]'  # This is valid quoted JSON

---
# component.yaml
spec:
  inputs:
    json:

---
job1:
  script:
    - echo '$[[ inputs.json ]]' | ruby -e 'require "json"; puts(JSON.parse STDIN.read)'  # A ruby hash string will be echoed, not valid JSON

My JSON string [{"test":"123"} has turned into the ruby style representation [{"test"=>"123"}]. This is obviously not valid JSON any more, and the pipeline fails.

I've encountered the issue today (14/04/25), and the issue didn't exist last Friday (11/04/25)