In the latest snapshot release, there were many changes to Redstone made. Not all of them good, and not all of them intended. One such change is Redstone dust "quasi-powering", as is the best name I can give it, full blocks. The reason I give it the name quasi-powered is that it shares the properties of Redstone dust and Redstone repeaters pre-update combined.

As can be seen in the attached screenshots, I am powering a piece of dust in such a way that it is able to transfer up a block powering the hopper on a 2-strong signal. Prior to today's update, removing items from the chest and setting the comparator to a 1 strength signal would unlock the hopper, allowing the hopper to take items from the hopper minecart above. Now, however, the hopper stays locked at all times (unless no signal is present whatsoever) due to Redstone dust's new ability to quasi-power blocks.

If this is an intentional change, I implore the developers to reverse this ill-guided snapshot. Good intentions were had, but for the majority, all that has happened is a loss of consistency in the Redstone of Java edition.