Before v1.66 rclone didn't sync directories at all.
With v1.66 we've introduced directory syncing code. This means that rclone tries to replicate exactly the directories on the source including the modification times.
These two log lines show the directories being created and updated with the correct modification times. The fact it says metadata there is irrelevant - it is just the mechanism used for setting the modification time.
What is new is getting the empty directories synced. Rclone v1.65.2 didn't used to do this which is arguably a long standing bug in rclone which has been fixed by v1.66.
Does this behaviour make sense? Do you think we need to fix something?