Vitess operator trying to run vtbackup-init pods for old shards after resharding worfklow finished and old shard tablets still available before yaml apply to remove it

Vitess latest operator 2.16.0 after reshard workflow completed, removing definition for old shards so it should be removed all vttablet pods of those, we get suddenly spawning vtbackup-init pods for old shards... operator stuck and not removing old shards because of those init pods trying to run.

{"level":"error","ts":"2026-01-23T10:58:03Z","msg":"Reconciler error","controller":"vitessshard-controller","object":{"name":"dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-22f2ea3f","namespace":"vitess-test"},"namespace":"vitess-test","name":"dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-22f2ea3f","reconcileID":"1af80deb-a82f-438b-aaec-28ef444974f9","error":"object is being deleted: pods \"dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-vtbackup-init-c1bee57e\" already exists","stacktrace":"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/internal/controller.(*Controller[...]).reconcileHandler\n\t/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.20.2/pkg/internal/controller/controller.go:341\nsigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/internal/controller.(*Controller[...]).processNextWorkItem\n\t/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.20.2/pkg/internal/controller/controller.go:288\nsigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/internal/controller.(*Controller[...]).Start.func2.2\n\t/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.20.2/pkg/internal/controller/controller.go:249"}
{"level":"info","ts":"2026-01-23T10:58:03Z","msg":"Warning: Reconciler returned both a non-zero result and a non-nil error. The result will always be ignored if the error is non-nil and the non-nil error causes requeuing with exponential backoff. For more details, see: https://pkg.go.dev/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/reconcile#Reconciler","controller":"vitessshard-controller","object":{"name":"dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-22f2ea3f","namespace":"vitess-test"},"namespace":"vitess-test","name":"dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-22f2ea3f","reconcileID":"72271ce3-0eff-4e94-a6d3-0e4e82dae22a"}
{"level":"error","ts":"2026-01-23T10:58:03Z","msg":"Reconciler error","controller":"vitessshard-controller","object":{"name":"dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-22f2ea3f","namespace":"vitess-test"},"namespace":"vitess-test","name":"dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-22f2ea3f","reconcileID":"72271ce3-0eff-4e94-a6d3-0e4e82dae22a","error":"object is being deleted: pods \"dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-vtbackup-init-c1bee57e\" already exists","stacktrace":"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/internal/controller.(*Controller[...]).reconcileHandler\n\t/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.20.2/pkg/internal/controller/controller.go:341\nsigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/internal/controller.(*Controller[...]).processNextWorkItem\n\t/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.20.2/pkg/internal/controller/controller.go:288\nsigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/internal/controller.(*Controller[...]).Start.func2.2\n\t/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.20.2/pkg/internal/controller/controller.go:249"}
{"level":"info","ts":"2026-01-23T10:58:03Z","msg":"Warning: Reconciler returned both a non-zero result and a non-nil error. The result will always be ignored if the error is non-nil and the non-nil error causes requeuing with exponential backoff. For more details, see: https://pkg.go.dev/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/reconcile#Reconciler","controller":"vitessshard-controller","object":{"name":"dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-22f2ea3f","namespace":"vitess-test"},"namespace":"vitess-test","name":"dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-22f2ea3f","reconcileID":"bfad7523-ac33-4603-8842-dc6290976ff2"}
{"level":"error","ts":"2026-01-23T10:58:03Z","msg":"Reconciler error","controller":"vitessshard-controller","object":{"name":"dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-22f2ea3f","namespace":"vitess-test"},"namespace":"vitess-test","name":"dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-22f2ea3f","reconcileID":"bfad7523-ac33-4603-8842-dc6290976ff2","error":"object is being deleted: pods \"dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-vtbackup-init-c1bee57e\" already exists","stacktrace":"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/internal/controller.(*Controller[...]).reconcileHandler\n\t/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.20.2/pkg/internal/controller/controller.go:341\nsigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/internal/controller.(*Controller[...]).processNextWorkItem\n\t/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.20.2/pkg/internal/controller/controller.go:288\nsigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/internal/controller.(*Controller[...]).Start.func2.2\n\t/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.20.2/pkg/internal/controller/controller.go:249"}```

Start with the vitessshard-controller reconciliation path for object dev-vitess2-loadtest-c0-x-22f2ea3f and inspect the vtbackup-init pod lifecycle during removal of old shards. Reproduce the completed resharding workflow and compare the controller logs, especially the already-exists error. Done means old shard tablets can be removed without repeatedly creating conflicting init pods or leaving reconciliation stuck.