Gmail – How to disable deselecting emails in gmail

I'm using the Preview Pane feature in Gmail. When I click an email once, it's opened as expected, however if I click it again, it gets deselected, showing No conversations selected in the right side of the pane.

Previously, if I clicked an email again that allowed me to mark the email as read more quickly or simply do nothing if I clicked it again, even by mistake, but now the item is simply deselected.

Is there a setting where I can disable this behavior and get back the previous behavior? or is this just something Google decided to roll-out for everyone with no option to opt-out?

FWIW, I'm not looking to mark emails as read in this or another way, this I can configure in general settings; I'm looking to stop this deselecting behavior, which I find annoying 😀

Thanks in advance for your help!