This behaviour has suddenly changed to gesture 0 (idle) after it being gesture 2 (open hand) for many years.
It's common for people to use open hand for eyes closed (for afk or sleeping), which doubles as a social indication that you might not be looking at them.
AFK detection is rarely used on avatars well, and some people
hate
the meditation pose when afk, and almost every public avatar does the default animation
(which you cannot change because it is not yours)
, which is really annoying. With AFK detection being a
global
property it is virtually useless if you want unique AFK behaviour only on specific avatars.
AFK being open hand as eyes closed made this very convenient and natural. Now people are often in my face when tabbed out thinking i'm looking at them, which leads to social friction.