saved USD asset normals count is half of the vertex indices numbers

**Describe the bug**
When saving a USD stage for a mesh, the object appears smooth when rendered through Maya USD ecosystem, however when loaded into other USD DCCs apps the prim is usually faceted. Upon further investigation and comparison between the output of a simple sphere using Maya USD 23, Bifrost 2.7 and other Apps. It turns out the number of normals doesn't corresponds to the number of vertex indices.

In fact there are two behavior's. Exporting through Maya USD 23 doesn't include the normals!!!. Exporting through BiFrost 2.7 USD exports only half the number of normals.

**Steps to reproduce**
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
1. create a basic poly sphere
2. save as usda
3. load into Multiverse for Maya (free) and the sphere is completely faceted.
4. print the content of the usda file, and the normals3f[] primvars:normals attribute is mising.

if using Bifrost with Maya USD
1. create a basic poly sphere
2. save as usda through bifrost
3. load into Multiverse for Maya (free) and the sphere is half smoothed (see attachment)
4. print the content of the usda file, and the normals3f[] primvars:normals count is half.

**Expected behavior**
a complete normal count that matches the number of vertex indices for each mesh prim needs to be present.

**Attachments**

**Specs (if applicable):**
- Windows 11
- Maya 2024
- Maya USD 23
- Bifrost 2.7.0.1