It might just be. Or it's a new feature that I didn't notice. I know Scarlett herself received an overhaul in the recent updates, so perhaps this was redesigned. I'll playtest it and see for myself though, unless someone else can already confirm.
@zazzaro , any insight into this?
Nah just checked, received the 1/F key immediately after defeating Scarlett the first time, then was able to free Keith and move up to 2/F. Might have been a bug for your file though, that's the only other explanation I can come up with.