I’m not an expert but I think it goes like this:

If you have cropped the sample, then you need to save sample copy because it’s a different sample than the original. The sample settings to my understanding are saved in another file and have to do with slice points and other attributes (gain, timestretch mode etc) that relate to the sample. I think every one sample can only have one settings file though so if you have it for example sliced some way in a project, and then load the sample in another project (or in another slot in the same project), and slice again differently and save those settings, it will affect the original as well.