Project Template deletes VST instuments when activating the project

I’ve created project templates to provide consistency with projects. Much to my dismay and alarm the VST instruments that are saved with the template disappear when activating the newly created project from a project template. How can this be happening? I re-read the manual about project templates and I see no option that allows for the VST instruments to remain as assigned when creating the template.

For example:

Surely this isn’t the intended behavior for a project template, no? What am I missing? Or perhaps the is a feature request instead?