Nope, I can recreate it (on latest).
Steps:
- Set homepage to Categories via
top menu - Change
desktop category page styleto be Categories with Featured Topics - Alter a sub-category to surpress it from homepage (for my screenshots I choose Meta)
- Visit homepage to see topics still listed.
- Wait a few hours, days, or manually rerun the sidekiq job to cache the Category info
- Refresh the homepage, see that topics are still listed.
Homepage:
Category that has its surpress from homepage setting, set
Category Settings:


