Strange Boot Behaviour Never Seen Before

When we turn on this MBA 2017 instead of getting the black screen with the Apple logo and the progress bar we immediately get the (Monterey) color wallpaper with the login password prompt, we then input the password and then we get the progress bar under where the password was, and once that has completed it boots into the OS (12.7.6) as normal with no issues. We have never changed any display or wallpaper settings etc..... Single user account, Guest user account never activated. Curious to know what has likely caused this to be. Has anyone encountered this before?