The big deductions that hurt was removing deductions for items people bought for work. The idea is that the employer should be providing that stuff, but that's not always realistic.

Without a doctor's note, lots of businesses aren't going to buy an employee an ergonomic chair because it costs 10 times as much as the Amazon special. They also aren't going to buy you a wardrobe of business suits that you'll only use for meetings. Being able to write that stuff off was huge for some of us.

I had to convince my side gig (teaching scuba and underwater photography) to change me from employee to contractor because I suddenly couldn't write off my gear.