Notably says to target a humanoid, rather than targeting an creature and having aformentioned creature automatically succeed if not a humanoid. Not sure how this is relevant yet

Quote from ArtificeMeal >>

Notably says to target a humanoid, rather than targeting an creature and having aformentioned creature automatically succeed if not a humanoid. Not sure how this is relevant yet

It's just shorter wording. From XGTE:

Invalid Spell Targets

A spell specifies what a caster can target with it: any type of creature, a creature of a certain type (humanoid or beast, for instance), an object, an area, the caster, or something else. But what happens if a spell targets something that isn’t a valid target? For example, someone might cast charm person on a creature believed to be a humanoid, not knowing that the target is in fact a vampire. If this issue comes up, handle it using the following rule.

If you cast a spell on someone or something that can’t be affected by the spell, nothing happens to that target, but if you used a spell slot to cast the spell, the slot is still expended. If the spell normally has no effect on a target that succeeds on a saving throw, the invalid target appears to have succeeded on its saving throw, even though it didn’t attempt one (giving no hint that the creature is in fact an invalid target). Otherwise, you perceive that the spell did nothing to the target.

Quote from ArtificeMeal >>

Notably says to target a humanoid, rather than targeting an creature and having aformentioned creature automatically succeed if not a humanoid. Not sure how this is relevant yet

This makes a difference for a number of effects that trigger upon succeeding on a saving throw, or things that trigger on forcing someone else to make a saving throw.

When using this on multiple targets at higher levels they no longer have to be within 30ft of each other. Given the range of the spell they could now be up to 120ft apart.

With D&D2024 changing humanlike creatures to non-Humanoids, this spell is drastically less useful than it was in 2014.  You can no longer target goblins, hobgoblins, bugbbears, gnolls, kobolds or any other creature whose type has been changed from Humanoid.  Basically it works on the PHB races and you now need a 5th level spell to affect a lowly kobold.  

I don't think Hold Person was commonly being used to target those types of enemies anyway - a 2nd-level spell slot is wasted on a regular kobold. I more often saw it used against enemy spellcasters. It's definitely lost some of its versatility, but I don't think it's a useless pick. Spells like these have always been campaign-dependant. It's always been useless in a campaign like Descent into Avernus, for example. 

Quote from ArtificeMeal >>

Notably says to target a humanoid, rather than targeting an creature and having aformentioned creature automatically succeed if not a humanoid. Not sure how this is relevant yet

 This wasn't how the 2014 spell worked either?