When I am distributing vertically or horizontally, in the older UI, the value the auto version of it makes is right by that control.
In the new UI, the control to do distribution is in the side menu under Position/Alignment… While the value for that is now in Layout/Spacing. It is not clear that the control in one part of the UI can be adjusted in a completely other part.
This one change does feel like the ‘cheese’ got moved too far and it would be easier to see this change by where the original action was carried out.