So I take it just changing to the hd44780 library "fixed" it?
Yep, I've seen that issue before, on that ESP board.
It took me while to track it down as it is not obvious since nothing is actually wrong other than a voltage mismatch.
Luckily there is a work around.
Glad the hd44780 library and hd44780_pinIO i/o class helped you.
It is faster and has some additional capabilities over the LiquidCrystal library.
Although keep in mind that there could still be some issues that show up under certain voltage and temperature conditions.
--- bill