Bug Shader.maximumGlobalLOD no longer works?

I've been trying to debug why Shader.maximumGlobalLOD is no longer working in Unity 2021.

I have my shader set up like so ..

SubShader
{
Name "Fancy"
LOD 500
}
SubShader
{
Name "Simple"
LOD 100
}

But no matter what I set Shader.maximumGlobalLOD to, the "Fancy" subshader is always used. As far as I can tell, the Shader.maximumGlobalLOD property no longer does anything?

Previously, I have been successful using this pattern. My understanding is the compiler is supposed to step through the subshaders from top to bottom and use the first one that it finds which is valid.

 

Upon further investigation, this appears to be a bug that is unique to the Unity project I am working in. However, there doesn't appear to be any code modifying Shader.maximumGlobalLOD other than my test script, and yet the maximum LOD subshader is always selected during rendering. Is there a way to debug Unity's subshader selection process?

 

Yes, I did try that route as well with no success. Purely a guess but maybe some plugin in the project (Oculus?) is changing the subshader selection process in some way?

 

I don't believe the tags are a problem, I have tried the same simple test shader in an empty project created with the URP template which shows the LODs are being selected correctly, but in the actual project that test shader's SubShader selection process was broken.

Here are the tags in the actual SubShader I am trying to use -

Tags {"RenderPipeline" = "UniversalRenderPipeline" "Queue" = "Geometry+100" "RenderType" = "Opaque" "IgnoreProjector" = "True"}

And in the constituent passes ..

Tags {"LightMode" = "UniversalForward"}
Tags { "LightMode" = "ShadowCaster" }
Tags { "LightMode" = "DepthOnly" }

 

Unfortunately for legal reasons I don't have the ability to share the project. I would submit a minimal repro but I'd probably have to solve the issue myself first!