One common problem I had with 1.4.4 was that it was putting perspective into image stitches when there was not any, really.
I exclusively use ICE to stitch the flatbed scans, so it is all supposed to be 2D.
Sometimes a mag you scan from is not stapled, the pages are loose, as in most newspapers. When an image then goes across two physically separated pages, and you scan an overlap between the pages (from either side) then the alignment is typically not perfect,
ICE imagines there must be some perspective issue, and the result is pants.