Did anyone else notice how fast the nick plugin and shop interface refresh now? Was there a silent update pushed to the network recently?

Yeah, they patched a bunch of things in the recent update. They fixed the nick plugin refresh delays, resolved the cosmetic loading bugs where win effects weren't showing up, smoothed out replay recording, and updated the /quickbuy command interface.

I was having issues with /quickbuy resetting my hotbar slots last week, but I tested it in a game just now and all my shop items stayed saved in the exact slots I assigned them to.

Same here. The replay feature is also way smoother now—when you rewatch matches, player movements and block placements don't stutter like they used to.