At present, the error affects about one in seven customers in Australia. The host is based in Europe. Thus far, have been unable to reproduce. Have tried the Network Link Conditioner, Charles Proxy throttling and breakpoints, disabling wifi, disconnecting ethernet, and combinations thereof. All whilst connected to ExpressVPN Sydney using Xcode and simulator. This induced: -1004 "Could not connect to the server." -1009 "The Internet connection appears to be offline." but as yet no -1005. How does “could not connect” and “internet connection appears to be offline” differ from "network connection was lost”? After all, we are pulling the plug - literally - while the url is awaiting response. Please, any clues about how to induce a -1005, or the specific conditions in the private CFNetwork code that trigger a -1005, would be much appreciated. We have one of the team based in Sydney and can ask for his help if need be.

Apple replied to FB9080056 suggesting reproduce on Xcode 13. Can confirm on beta 4 (13A5201i) as noted by @Claude31 that the defect appears to have been resolved.