Systemd image /etc/resolv.conf not a symlink.

[jonesmz]

But it has the systemd documentation text at the top

# This is /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf managed by man:systemd-resolved(8).
# Do not edit.
#
# This file might be symlinked as /etc/resolv.conf. If you're looking at
# /etc/resolv.conf and seeing this text, you have followed the symlink.
#
# This is a dynamic resolv.conf file for connecting local clients to the
# internal DNS stub resolver of systemd-resolved. This file lists all
# configured search domains.
#
# Run "resolvectl status" to see details about the uplink DNS servers
# currently in use.
#
# Third party programs should typically not access this file directly, but only
# through the symlink at /etc/resolv.conf. To manage man:resolv.conf(5) in a
# different way, replace this symlink by a static file or a different symlink.
#
# See man:systemd-resolved.service(8) for details about the supported modes of
# operation for /etc/resolv.conf.

This means at some point in the image build, the /etc/resolv.conf file is being converted from a symlink back to a plaintext file.

[jonesmz]

Notably, this is not happening as part of the post-compile step of building the .img file.
Manually inspecting the chroot directory shows the file is not a symlink.