Clearances and their tolerances for piston skirts haven’t changed dramatically. Also, “lower tension” rings are generally thinner (as low as 1.0mm) which is where the majority of friction reduction comes in (and that data has been proven).
I may be off base, but I don’t believe there has been a major reduction in radial tension (how hard the ring presses against the bore); by simply reducing from a 5/32” ring to a 1.5mm ring resulted in a 50% reduction of the torque it took to turn over the engine. Besides, a thinner ring will have less surface area against the cylinder and also a higher proportion of “edge” vs “face”; all of these things combined lead me to believe thinner, low tension rings (that aren’t fluttering from crankcase pressure) have the potential to resist the “float” you’re talking about.
Again, it’s been years since I’ve been elbows-deep in cutting edge engines personally, but I’ve never seen or heard of the phenomena that was described to you.