[adityab]

Yes, you're not alone. Oddly enough, it's been repurposed to mean something akin to value alignment or strategic cooperation. It used to mean thoughtful kindness, and this change seems to have suddenly happened in the last five years.

It's usage now makes me vaguely uncomfortable because it feels borderline sociopathic or manipulative.

[tunesmith]

Yeah, exactly. Which is particularly maddening because sociopathy is about the absence of empathy.