The 2018 deformation shot is an imagery artifact. It’s like the overpassed that looked collapsed a while back in bing maps shots. The deformation they’re talking about now is different (and I do not know if visible). If there is/was as much as is shown in the 2018 shot and it survived, it would have to be demolished and rebuilt afterwards.
There was a tremendous amount of deformation there wassnt’ there. I think that they finally admitted there was something like several mm that had happened but I do not have that link.
I can understand some, given the amount of water pressure and load on the dam structure. If no Steel was used to anchor the dam to the bedrock (The unknown link above.) that could be very problematic depending on the type of bedrock. (High Aswan dam built on an aquifer which ensures the lake behind it will never fill up and remain a foetid pond. Communist engineering at its finest!)