Answering my own email. Turns out the problem was that I changed the default value of org-latex-pdf-process and no longer had the "-output-directory %o" part of the command. For some reason, this has not been a problem until recently. Maybe just pure luck.
So, maybe check your value of org-latex-pdf-process. -- : Eric S Fraga via Emacs 28.0.50, Org release_9.4.4-179-g5b5c42
