I ran into something very similar yesterday, working off my ID console.
I even opened up the lanes to try & see what was happening, and I could see the automation being written, but vanishing as soon as I stopped writing it.
It turned out to be Pilot Error, as opening the automation panel revealed the answer - somehow (and I had definitely not done this so it just might be a default setting) the “To Start” button was highlighted in Blue although not locked.
Cycling through Locked mode to unlit sorted the problem out, and the automation then “took” next time.
(the tracks written in my case were the 4 tracks created in a rotation)