looks like Maksim was right; the new fix does not do the second attempt to detect python libs, it finds it correctly with the first attempt

cmake/OpenCVDetectPython.cmake

@@ -75,10 +75,10 @@ function(find_python preferred_version min_version library_env include_dir_env
 
     if(NOT ANDROID AND NOT IOS)
       ocv_check_environment_variables(${library_env} ${include_dir_env})
-      if(${library_env})
+      if(${${library_env}})
           set(PYTHON_LIBRARY "${${library_env}}")
       endif()
-      if(${include_dir_env})
+      if(${${include_dir_env}})
           set(PYTHON_INCLUDE_DIR "${${include_dir_env}}")
       endif()
 
@@ -88,9 +88,6 @@ function(find_python preferred_version min_version library_env include_dir_env
         find_host_package(PythonLibs "${_version_major_minor}")
       else()
         find_host_package(PythonLibs "${_version_major_minor}.${_version_patch}" EXACT)
-        if(NOT PYTHONLIBS_FOUND)
-            find_host_package(PythonLibs "${_version_major_minor}.${_version_patch}")
-        endif()
       endif()
 
       if(PYTHONLIBS_FOUND)