I dont think it's ever been different...
To talk mechanics: whenever a regen is created, he gets a set value for "potential ability"; a score out of 200. In his attempt to reach this potential ability, a player encounters several breakpoints. The first is (afaik) exactly when he turns 24. When he turns 24, the rate of growth severely slows down - but it doesn't stop; he can still significantly improve over the years if he gets enough playtime etc. But it really is a huge breakpoint; after 24 it will take several years to get the same growth a player can get in 1 year before 24yrs of age. This rate of growth slows down over time. While a first team player who gets to play every game between 24 and 27 years of age can grow maybe 10 or 15 points towards his potential ability, he will maybe gain 5 points for playing every game between 27 and 30, and somewhere around 30 the growth simply stops. Somewhere between 30 and 34 comes another breakpoint where a player starts to lose ability points no matter what you do. WHEN this point comes (30, 31, 32,..) is primarely affected by professionalism.
The reason all of this is relevant is because i can't say "on a report card, the only thing "potential ability" reflects is that "potential ability out of 200" hidden number", because the staffmember will also take into account what i explained above; the realistic growth potential. Say there's two players with IDENTICAL current & potential ability. Both have 110 current ability out of 180 potential ability. But one player is 18, while the other is 25. When you get staffmember report cards on these two players, they will have a similar/identical star-value for current ability, but the 18yr old will have much higher star-rating for potential ability, despite having the same number, just because he is 7 years younger and has 6 years of pre-24 growth in front of him.
Another thing to always remember is that star-rating / current/potential ability on a report card is relative to your own squad, more precisely to the best player you currently have for the same position. If you currently have a striker with 190 current/potential ability, and you scout a striker with 175 potential ability, this player will get a much lower star-rating for potential than if your best striker has 160 ability. If you scout a player that has his best position somewhere you simply dont play & have no players for (say you play in 4-4-2, have no top players who can play as AMC because you dont use them), the game doesn't have anything to compare with and that player will always have a high star-rating.