previous years grade boundaries

i just did the 2022 edexcel maths papers and i found them a harder (especially paper 3) than other past papers. the boundary for the A* was 217/300 which is a lot lower than last yrs boundary. Would this boundary have been low due to difficulty of the paper or was it this low because of the COVID disruption so exam boards intentionally lowered boundaries anyways.

Grade boundaries are adjusted for many reasons - the difficulty is one. In that year this explains it:
https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/Support/understanding-grade-boundaries-2022.pdf

ah right so im assuming if the level of difficulty of papers sat this year were the same as 2022, the boundaries would still be slightly higher?