Different behaviour in 7.8.0 (compared to 7.7.0)

After upgrading to 7.8.0 I noticed, that the flush of process variables work differently as before. For example:

In version 7.7.0 when I set some variables in the service task and IF decided that the process should end, the variables were not saved in database.
In version 7.8.0 are the variables saved in database.

Was there a change in way how or when are the variables flushed to database ? Can I somehow achieve the original behavior with newer versions (I need them for different reasons).

Thanks.