v3.2.6
I need more time to publish the customer as a variable directly, so I can pass an Object.
Otherwise, you could have mixed syntax inside the mail view. Meaning that some values may be reached as array and others as object. I think it's not a good idea to mix those.
Until then: You can reach the customer through $order->customer now as a quick workaround, without breaking changes if introducing the customer as it's own variable.