Tickets for the Kherson–Mykolaiv shuttle bus

I'm sitting on a marshrutka. It came as a surprise when the driver told me to go to the ticket window to buy a ticket. On marshrutkas you always used to pay the driver at departure, which happened once the bus filled up. Now you have to get a ticket for a specific time. A week ago this wasn't the case.

Now they've introduced checks at the Kherson bus station for the shuttle buses too, and the driver has to send most passengers to the ticket window for a ticket, but not all of them. For example, the ones who show up right at departure time the driver still "tickets" himself. The price is the same either way.

An interesting innovation that adds more hassle. I wonder whether it's always like this, and whether it's the same in Mykolaiv?