You were either playing with one of the several🐼 mods that allowed for wrist/gauntlet enchantments or you are remembering wrong then because that is indeed how the game works. You made me second guess myself but a short Google search phrased a few different w🎉ays confirms thats how it has always been. I can find old forum posts going back over a decade of people asking if there are ways to enchant gauntlets and being directed to mods.