In SERVER-83756, we disabled pipeline optimization when $meta is used in an exclusion projection as a short-term fix to a bug within dependency analysis that caused $match stages that rely on computed $meta fields to be incorrectly pushed before exclusionary $project stages that project those computed $meta fields.

We intended to revert this change by banning $meta from exclusion projections (SERVER-86431), but decided not to make that breaking change. Instead, we should establish a dependency analysis workflow that will recognize when $match depends on a computed $meta field in an exclusionary $project.

There is a thorough comment here with more context.