[v1.23.2] CSS files no longer being imported

Target SharePoint environment

SharePoint Online

What SharePoint development model, framework, SDK or API is this about?

💥 SharePoint Framework

Developer environment

Windows

What browser(s) / client(s) have you tested

All browsers

Describe the bug / error

I don't know if this is best practice but I "import" CSS files in the WebPart.ts file like this (see first line). These are common CSS files for fonts and styling things like h1, h2, etc. etc.

I upgraded to 1.23.2 and it no longer works. I have a @css alias set up in tsconfig.json and the webpack patch file. I'm not sure if that's related to the issue. I pasted that code below, as well. Is this a regression bug with all of the new CSS changes in the new release or is there a better way to do it? I tried changing require to import but that didn't work, either.

This code works fine in 1.23.0.

require('@css/common/workbench.css');

export default class FilingCalendarWebPart extends BaseClientSideWebPart<{}>
{
    protected async onInit(): Promise<void>
    {
        .................
    }

    public render(): void
    {
        ...............
    }    
}

tsconfig

 "paths": {          
            "@css/*": [
                "src/assets/css/*",
                "temp/sass-ts/assets/css/*"
            ]
        }

webpack patch file

const rootDir = path.resolve(__dirname, '..');
generatedConfiguration.resolve.alias['@css'] = path.resolve(rootDir, 'lib/assets/css/');

Steps to reproduce

Create a web part and try to use require to "import" a CSS file.

Expected behavior

CSS file should be loaded and applied to the page.