I use helmfile.d for my releases and a helm-default.yaml file to define global values.
After upgrading to v 0.54.2, the defaults are no longer interpreted in the releases definitions.

I have to workaround this with a dirty inclusion of the helm default file in my release definitions like this:

{{ readFile "000-helm-defaults.yaml" }}
---
releases:
- name: myrelease1
....

The helmDefaults in separated file was working with version 0.45.3