Bug in NMaximize in 12.2?

Question

Bug introduced in 12.2, Fixed in 12.3
Something changed in NMaximze in v12.2:
NMaximize[E^(-x^2) - 1, x]
(* {(-1 + E^#1)[0.], {x -> 0.}} *)

v12.1 works as expected:
NMaximize[E^(-x^2) - 1, x]
(* {0., {x -> 0.}} *)

as does Maximize in v12.2:
Maximize[E^(-x^2) - 1, x]
(* {0, {x -> 0}} *)

Do you all agree this is a bug?  Any ideas on a workaround?
$Version
(* "12.2.0 for Mac OS X x86 (64-bit) (December 12, 2020)" *)

Michael E2 · Accepted Answer

It seems (clearly!) to be a bug in the preprocessing for the new convex optimizer. Use one of the other methods (e.g. "DifferentialEvolution"):
Trace[
 NMaximize[E^(-x^2) - 1, x],
 _Optimization`MinimizationProblem,
 TraceForward -> True,
 TraceInternal -> True
 ]

Workaround:
NMaximize[E^(-x^2) - 1, x, Method -> "DifferentialEvolution"]

(*  {0., {x -> -5.45643*10^-9}}  *)

Alternatively, you can turn off the convex minimizer:
Block[{Optimization`UseConvexMinimize = False},
 NMinimize[-(E^(-x^2) - 1), x]
 ]

(*   {0., {x -> -5.45643*10^-9}}  *)

Bug in NMaximize in 12.2?

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