Toward Ecosophy

It's curious how the definition went from

the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group [Merriam Webster Dictionary]

to the following:

the crime of intentionally destroying part or all of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, by killing people or by other methods: [Cambridge Dictionary]

I have always understood it to mean the complete lethal elimination of a targeted group. When did it become such a vague definition that it can be partial or not even involve death at all?

Caldathras