Volume keys change the speakers again under EasyEffects 8
With EasyEffects 8, the volume keys and the audio panel moved an on-screen slider while the speakers stayed put. Pull request 13396 merged into quattro.
EasyEffects 8 no longer exposes the playback stream the output helper was following, so the keys acted on easyeffects_sink. That sink's volume does not reach the speakers.
The helper now follows the port links to the ALSA output. If those links are down, it reads the device named in the EasyEffects settings.
The GitHub user stefanoverna opened pull request 13396, and David Heinemeier Hansson merged it.