ESPHome gives sleeping Bluetooth devices more time to hear that an ESP32-C3 or ESP32-S3 connection has ended. Previously, the controller could stop trying too early, leaving the other device searching at full receive power until its own timeout.
In a test using an ESP32-C3 and a thermostat running custom firmware, four of eight disconnects left the thermostat searching for six seconds. None of thirteen did with the correction. That extra search used five to six times the charge of a normal complete connection in this test. A device that has genuinely disappeared takes longer to time out.