Featured content in groups doesn't always stick

[SFM_TravisBott]

I am not sure if this is even a question, but an issue I've noticed: adding featured content to a group will not always stick. I would say ~85% of the time it works as it should, but that other 15% I will select an item to show up in the overview page and it just.....doesn't. I'll click again to 'Change featured content,' and the box for the item I just checked will be unchecked. 

It seems to be group-related, because the same group will have trouble over and over with the the item. The item and it's dependent element is definitely shared to the group, and can be accessed through the group's content...just not featured. 

What gives?

[NormBetland]

I have begun having this exact problem with one of my groups. For no apparent reason when I try to add additional content to the featured content it will not stay checked.

It does seem that I can remove and then re-add content that is already featured, so it feels like for some reason the group is rejecting any newer content from being featured. 

The most frustrating part is that Esri Support's main recommendation is to just create a new group rather than resolve the underlying bug. This has too often been their solution for everything. "Your web app is suddenly not working, just create a new app." "Your layer suddenly is corrupted? Just recreate your layers and maps." The longer I use ESRI the more frustrated I am and wish there was a legit alternative professional level GIS. I like QGIS, but the idea of using it for online interactive web content is daunting.