When the newly introduced `"maxfeerate"` option is not passed, the default fee rate is interpreted as an absolute amount. However, when it is passed, it is interpreted as a fee rate. Thus, the rpc will return different results when the value is explicitly set to the default.

See

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/536590f358dc3d3e5821eba7f1009452ea93b205/src/rpc/rawtransaction.cpp#L797-L807

I think we should change it back to an absolute value in BTC (not a feerate)

This was changed to a feerate by @kallewoof, so ping him to see if there was a specific reason to switch.
{
            RPCHelpMan{"signrawtransactionwithkey",
                "\nSign inputs for raw transaction (serialized, hex-encoded).\n"
                "The second argument is an array of base58-encoded private\n"
                "keys that will be the only keys used to sign the transaction.\n"
                "The third optional argument (may be null) is an array of previous transaction outputs that\n"
                "this transaction depends on but may not yet be in the block chain.\n",
                {
                    {"hexstring", RPCArg::Type::STR, RPCArg::Optional::NO, "The transaction hex string"},
                    {"privkeys", RPCArg::Type::ARR, RPCArg::Optional::NO, "A json array of base58-encoded private keys for signing",
                        {
                            {"privatekey", RPCArg::Type::STR_HEX, RPCArg::Optional::OMITTED, "private key in base58-encoding"},
                        },
                        },
                    {"prevtxs", RPCArg::Type::ARR, RPCArg::Optional::OMITTED_NAMED_ARG, "A json array of previous dependent transaction outputs",
                        {
                            {"", RPCArg::Type::OBJ, RPCArg::Optional::OMITTED, "",
                                {
                                    {"txid", RPCArg::Type::STR_HEX, RPCArg::Optional::NO, "The transaction id"},
                                    {"vout", RPCArg::Type::NUM, RPCArg::Optional::NO, "The output number"},
                                    {"scriptPubKey", RPCArg::Type::STR_HEX, RPCArg::Optional::NO, "script key"},
                                    {"redeemScript", RPCArg::Type::STR_HEX, RPCArg::Optional::OMITTED, "(required for P2SH) redeem script"},