I see someone just gave kudos on this, didn't realize there was people watching this. Quick update, there was no resolution here and it's definitely a bug (which I reported), but it actually is NOT removing the images!
For some reason, whenever I come back to my form after a while (I'm unsure how long it takes for it to lapse) it "appears" that the images are gone, but all you need to do is refresh the page and they'll re-populate. I believe if you preview, it'll also show the images, I think it might have something to do with the browser.
I am using Chrome and using a Macbook Air Pro 2022 if anyone's curious, hope this helps.