@Klanky I believe you, and I think my initial and firmer tone was perhaps uncalled for; I apologize for that.
I should mention that you are also posting from the 'sopuli.xyz' instance; I am not familiar with the bulk of cross-instance posting mechanics but it may simply be an unusual, if unfortunate abstraction of behaviour in how posting works and links behave on the original post's instance and Fediverse instances other than that.