What happened to .htaccess?

Question

PHP

There is such .htaccess

AddDefaultCharSet utf8

php_flag display_errors on
php_flag display_startup_errors on

ErrorDocument 401 /error/401.html
ErrorDocument 403 /error/403.html
ErrorDocument 404 /error/404.html
Options -Indexes

RewriteEngine on

RedirectMatch 403 /\..*$

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?route=$1 [L]

I understand the essence is that if there is no specified file, then transfer control to index.php . But here's the problem, literally an hour ago a strange thing began to happen. I'm accessing an obviously existing file, but I end up in the index. while all the pictures open as expected. for the sake of experiment, added exit to the beginning of the index; , and lo and behold. I got into the called file.
That's interesting, what is it?
For two years I used the wrong .htaccess
or some private glitch, which can only be cured by reinstalling the server.