i have no caching or optimization plugins on the site. it happens when only generatepress premium is active (currently).
i’ve removed code snippets plugin completely. i’ve used firefox incognito and a virgin browser that’s never seen the site. cleared my cache in my everyday browser (firefox). cleared my wordpress cache with wp cli. we reset our router even!
i asked the host to look at it. they cleared caches but no change.
they tried changing the Contrast red to a hex color in the customizer, the site showed the changes.
Since that wasn’t the issue, we then tried to remove that color designation in the color panels and change ‘red’ to a hex color in my function to see if it didn’t like the named color, but now the Contrast color variable doesn’t show up in my palette at all.