This kind of reductive logic is dangerous. It’s like saying that I’ve always driven 5 MPH over the speed limit and never gotten a speeding ticket; but today I was driving 50 in a 45 zone and did, so the police must have changed their guidelines. But the truth is more that I’ve just been lucky until now.
I don’t think that any of us are stating that this is definitely the issue. However, best known practices are just that. And in this case, they are actual documented guidelines. Stray from them and you can experience undesired behavior. Starting from a known, expected-working configuration is always best.
You may also want to consider performing the Plex Dance on the effected episodes. Perhaps there’s some stray metadata floating around causing issues. After that, logs would probably be helpful.
