SharePoint REST API filter on date does not work without time

I am facing a strange issue in the production site where I am using below API to filter on date column

_api/web/lists/getbytitle('List Name')/Items?$filter=MeetingDate eq '2022-09-15'&$top=1

There are records with the meeting date. However it is not returning anything. The MeetingDate Column is Date only column. If I enter the timezone below then it works:

_api/web/lists/getbytitle('List Name')/Items?$filter=MeetingDate eq '2022-09-15T07:00:00Z'&$top=1

I do not understand why do i need to enter time zone when the column is date only. The strange part is the same list exists in dev and stage and it works in dev and stage without the timezone.