Visible actors in 'character only' render layer

Hey hey, Ive set up my Movie Graph Config similar to how Shaun Comly set his up to separate the environment and characters, so i would only have 2 main layers: charOnly and envOnly. I did this through setting up the collections and modifiers, by tagging the characters with ‘Character’ and assigning them that tag, then for the env_collection assigning the folders that the env actors were in.

However, when i go to render those layers, in the ‘charOnly’ render layer theres actors either rendered with color or being held out by their alpha.

this first image is the first attempt, i assigned all the env actors to the env_collection

this second attempt i assigned the env actors via the ‘Editor Folder’, and added all top and sub folders, but theres still information from the env in the ‘charOnly’ render layer

some additional screengrabs, but let me know if I should post additional info:

Ive just tried putting the fog cards and fire VDBs onto 1 Sublevel then hiding that sublevel in the Level Visibility Track. Those are now gone, but now i see that the background matte painting card, which has a transparency, is still in the charOnly render layer:

are transparencies not allowed? or maybe Im configuring this incorrectly

i did a test by making the background matte painting card Opaque instead of transparent and it was taken out of the charOnly render layer: