Wifi in IoT vs computer networks

What is it about wifi protocols that makes security different in this way:

I changed router the other day, the same model and brand it's just that the old tplink router dies after 20 or so days. So I got a replacement, gave it the same said and we pwd and ready! My esp based devices all reconnected and kept posting data without issue.

But my laptops didn't, I had to re enter the password and then it worked. Why?

esp doesn't use BSSID at default. the computer maybe stored the MAC address of the router (BSSID)