diff --git a/runtime/doc/lua.txt b/runtime/doc/lua.txt
index 0a7c53a482..0beee1507a 100644
--- a/runtime/doc/lua.txt
+++ b/runtime/doc/lua.txt
@@ -2230,6 +2230,12 @@ vim.tbl_count({t})                                           *vim.tbl_count()*
 vim.tbl_deep_extend({behavior}, {...})                 *vim.tbl_deep_extend()*
     Merges recursively two or more tables.
 
+    Only values that are empty tables or tables that are not |lua-list|s
+    (indexed by consecutive integers starting from 1) are merged recursively.
+    This is useful for merging nested tables like default and user
+    configurations where lists should be treated as literals (i.e., are
+    overwritten instead of merged).
+
     Parameters: ~
       • {behavior}  (`'error'|'keep'|'force'`) Decides what to do if a key is
                     found in more than one map:
diff --git a/runtime/doc/news.txt b/runtime/doc/news.txt
index ff41238912..bc1b9487b7 100644
--- a/runtime/doc/news.txt
+++ b/runtime/doc/news.txt
@@ -214,9 +214,6 @@ These existing features changed their behavior.
   more emoji characters than before, including those encoded with multiple
   emoji codepoints combined with ZWJ (zero width joiner) codepoints.
 
-• |vim.tbl_deep_extend()| no longer ignores any values for which |vim.isarray()|
-  returns `true`.
-
 ==============================================================================
 REMOVED FEATURES                                                 *news-removed*
 
diff --git a/runtime/lua/vim/shared.lua b/runtime/lua/vim/shared.lua
index 2f10380bad..4d06cdd77d 100644
--- a/runtime/lua/vim/shared.lua
+++ b/runtime/lua/vim/shared.lua
@@ -354,6 +354,12 @@ function vim.tbl_isempty(t)
   return next(t) == nil
 end
 
+--- We only merge empty tables or tables that are not list-like (indexed by consecutive integers
+--- starting from 1)
+local function can_merge(v)
+  return type(v) == 'table' and (vim.tbl_isempty(v) or not vim.islist(v))
+end
+
 --- Recursive worker for tbl_extend
 --- @param behavior 'error'|'keep'|'force'
 --- @param deep_extend boolean
@@ -368,7 +374,7 @@ local function tbl_extend_rec(behavior, deep_extend, ...)
     local tbl = select(i, ...) --[[@as table<any,any>]]
     if tbl then
       for k, v in pairs(tbl) do
-        if deep_extend and type(v) == 'table' and type(ret[k]) == 'table' then
+        if deep_extend and can_merge(v) and can_merge(ret[k]) then
           ret[k] = tbl_extend_rec(behavior, true, ret[k], v)
         elseif behavior ~= 'force' and ret[k] ~= nil then
           if behavior == 'error' then
@@ -421,6 +427,11 @@ end
 
 --- Merges recursively two or more tables.
 ---
+--- Only values that are empty tables or tables that are not |lua-list|s (indexed by consecutive
+--- integers starting from 1) are merged recursively. This is useful for merging nested tables
+--- like default and user configurations where lists should be treated as literals (i.e., are
+--- overwritten instead of merged).
+---
 ---@see |vim.tbl_extend()|
 ---
 ---@generic T1: table
diff --git a/test/functional/lua/vim_spec.lua b/test/functional/lua/vim_spec.lua
index 7f10dcd8da..599b688bf4 100644
--- a/test/functional/lua/vim_spec.lua
+++ b/test/functional/lua/vim_spec.lua
@@ -1071,12 +1071,11 @@ describe('lua stdlib', function()
     ]])
     )
 
-    -- Fix github issue #23654
     ok(exec_lua([[
-      local a = { sub = { [1] = 'a' } }
-      local b = { sub = { b = 'a' } }
+      local a = { sub = { 'a', 'b' } }
+      local b = { sub = { 'b', 'c' } }
       local c = vim.tbl_deep_extend('force', a, b)
-      return vim.deep_equal(c, { sub = { [1] = 'a', b = 'a' } })
+      return vim.deep_equal(c, { sub = { 'b', 'c' } })
     ]]))
 
     matches('invalid "behavior": nil', pcall_err(exec_lua, [[return vim.tbl_deep_extend()]]))