I downgraded the Task Agent to 10.2.300.10 version and stuff works again with .11, .12…
So if anyone installs the Task Agent 10.2.300.13 - it did not work on any < .13 versions. Since I have multiple Instances and multiple versions for testing - I am just using .10 for time being.
Looks like they had some other issues recently, probably some minor Architecture changes in-progress. Thx @markdamen your post gave me an idea what to try 