I encountered this issue with Devotions for the Faithful spell, though I don't have similar spells currently in my disposal to see if the issue appears with other abilities who function similarly. When spell shaping this particular spell I saw something odd happening.
Default:

 

Bigger AoE:

 

Smaller AoE:

 

DotF has two AoE effect: friendly buff and foe debuff. While the friendly AoE gets shaped, the foe AoE stays the same. See enlarged AoE doesn't hit enemies:

 

while smaller AoE has the same reached as the default spell:

 

Here is pre Eothas fanatic boarding sequence for testing:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f66jwec7cUqp5XU42-cFZF7uFCk6-7x3/view?usp=sharing

Still present in 5.0