Assigning SharedMaterial from ScriptableObject but getting Instance

Hi,
I'm storing an array of material references somewhere deep in ScriptableObject (SO). When I click on any material in SO in editor, Unity points me to an actual material entity inside of a project. Hence, I assume material references are set correctly.

When I'm trying to assign an array of material references from SO to a sharedmaterial array of a runtime generated mesh, I get material Instances instead.

Hope you're following.

I've tried these two ways of assigning materials:

Code (CSharp):

1. MeshRenderer mRenderer;
2. ScriptableObjectClass so;
3.  
4. mRenderer.sharedMaterials = so.materialsArray;

Code (CSharp):

1. MeshRenderer mRenderer;
2. ScriptableObjectClass so;
3.  
4. Material[] mats = new Material[so.materialsArray.Length];
5.  
6. for (int i = 0; i < mats.Length; i++)
7. {
8. mats[i] = Material.Instantiate<Material>(so.materialsArray[i]);
9. }
10.  
11. mRenderer.sharedMaterials = mats;

Both of them are giving me materials copies instead shared materials.

TL;DR How do I properly assign a material stored in ScriptableObject to a mesh renderer as a shared material, but not as a instance of a material.

Thanks.