Has _G network replication changed and where to find niche updates?

So I've been trying to replicate an instance/value dictionary from the server to the client. On my last post about this issue, someone commented that I should use the global lua variable _G, implying that it replicates across networks (I didn't get any info beyond that). I went ahead and tried it out and found that it doesn't replicate, and read a couple of forums online from September 2018 who were talking about _G as if it did replicate similar to replicated storage. I've concluded that there's either some sort of studio option that lets you change this functionality or _G has been updated to prevent replication and act more like a module script, where the server and the client have their own isolated copies.

So am I crazy and I'm missing something, or does _G not replicate like it used to? Where can I find out about niche updates like this? I searched on the developer forum and I still couldn't find any information about it, but I'm pretty new to that too. I guess I should start by reading release notes as they come out, but there's 423 to date that I'd have to catch up on...