Not sure exactly when this was changed, but it seriously annoys me having the shards/runes auto-selected and set to max when I go to upgrade a character or talisman.
It's very hard to tell which one is selected, and besides, I usually want to only do one level worth of shard/rune for the daily bonus.
At the least, I want some number less than max.
Horrible decision, put it back to none selected.