Conditional formatting on nested range loses formatting

1. Create a nested range. The inner range should be a vertical table (in my test they both were vertical tables).
2. Create a conditional format on the inner range
a. "Use a formula to determine which cells to format" mode.
b. Formula: =$A1="" (so, first cell in the row being formatted).
c. Set the Format to clear the top border of the cell.
3. Set up the template and some data so you can populate that first cell in each row with data, some of which is empty strings, some of which are non-empty strings.
4. Apply data to the template.

If you open the generated file in Excel the conditional formatting will not be applied. Checking the formatting rules, you'll see the rule has "No format set" despite it being set in the template. If you manually assign the format the spreadsheet formats as desired.

This may apply to any range, not just nested, or may not even require a range. I did not test those scenarios.