This may have been on purpose, but i do not see the behavior change listed under breaking changes.
https://blog.npmjs.org/post/626173315965468672/npm-v7-series-beta-release-and-semver-major

Current Behavior:

VERSION=$(npm version patch)
set tag to v1.0.1, but VERSION is 1.0.1

Expected Behavior:

NPM 6 behavior:

VERSION=$(npm version patch)
set tag to v1.0.1, and VERSION is v1.0.1

Steps To Reproduce:

• npm init
• echo $(npm version patch)

Environment:

Node 10, Node 15, npm 7.5.2
Ubuntu and Mac Catalina.