* Requests with the query parameter `?watch=` are treated by the API server as a request to watch, but authorization and metrics were not correctly identifying those as watch requests, instead grouping them as list calls. ([#48583](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/48583), [@smarterclayton](https://github.com/smarterclayton))

- Fixed a race condition in `kube-proxy` when using LocalModeNodeCIDR, to avoid dropping Services traffic if the object node is recreated when `kube-proxy` is starting. ([#118499](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/118499), [@aojea](https://github.com/aojea))

  - warn - perform server-side validation and warn on any invalid fields (but ultimately let the request succeed by dropping any invalid fields from the object). If validation is not available on the server, perform no validation.
  - false/ignore - perform no validation, silently dropping invalid fields from the object. ([#108350](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/108350), [@kevindelgado](https://github.com/kevindelgado))

- The metrics `etcd_request_duration_seconds` and `etcd_bookmark_counts` now differentiate by group resource instead of object type, allowing unique entries per `CustomResourceDefinition`, instead of grouping them all under `*unstructured.Unstructured`. ([#112042](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/112042), [@ncdc](https://github.com/ncdc))

- Improved memory usage of `kube-scheduler` by dropping the `.metadata.managedFields` field that `kube-scheduler` doesn't require. ([#119556](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/119556), [@linxiulei](https://github.com/linxiulei))