I’m afraid you are mistaken the small toaster popups have been around for some considerable time. I have some captured images of them when they were toying with the double height popup (circa July 2012) combining the VPS update notification and an ad/tip; a promotion for EasyPass from October 2011; an upgrade offer from July 2011.

So they have been around for some considerable time, the only problem with this time is that the piggybacking with the VPS update notification has screwed with the regular auto update notifications. But monitoring that problem on my other system, I am consistently getting the regular auto update notification, with voice over and the popup duration is also correct.