Waves 11 (V11), specifically the release around early 2020, marked a significant compatibility milestone for the Waves plugin ecosystem, primarily focused on future-proofing for macOS users. This version was notable for introducing full support for macOS 10.15 Catalina. Key Features of Waves V11 (Early 2020)
The version "v16.01.20" indicates a specific release date of January 16, 2020. Software updates like this often include:
Introduction
Why? Because the January 2020 build of Waves 11 was never optimized for later macOS point releases (10.15.4+, 10.15.7, or Big Sur). If you are forcing this specific build onto a newer OS or an unsupported Mac hardware, performance will degrade.