Since 2004, a number of small changes were made to the automask function. Perhaps you are seeing the effect of the 'peel/restore' option (added about a year ago), in which the outer layers of the mask are peeled off, then any small clusters cut off from the main body by that operation are excised, then the remaining peelings are restored. The default is to peel/restore one layer -- previously this operation was not done. You could try '-peel 0' if you want to see the difference. The other difference is the '-nograd' option (the former default), as you pointed out.
Are you really worried about a voxel or two?