Required 3D Widget in world on play?

I have 3D widgets that are spawned at runtime and use “Receive Hardware Input” (Laptops in Cars). Recently, I created a blank map simply to test multiplayer stuff, and my 3D widgets stopped working, no inputs worked at all.

After a day of troubleshooting, I figured out that if I add a blank useless 3D widget to the world with “Receive Hardware Input” enabled, then all my runtime spawned 3D widgets work. The second I delete the useless 3D widget, no runtime spawned 3D widgets receive input.

I’m wondering if this is just something super weird with my massive project or if this is intended at all or if it’s just a bug. I’m using UE 5.4.4, playing as Client in the PIE, the 3D widgets are spawned by the server at runtime.