P.S. I could accept this only happening during the aforementioned mode/wallpaper changes, but sometimes the Live Activity is initially presented with the content and tinted background out of sync (e.g. white text, white background) and therefore illegible, which is the main thing I'm trying to resolve

No problem - thanks for the prompt response! I've attached an Instruments .trace capturing the hitch during interactive dismissal. It shows a clear spike in work, including ViewGraph.updateOutputs alongside UIKit layout work (UIView layoutSublayersOfLayer, _UIHostingView.layoutSubviews). Using LazyVStack mitigates the issue for the ScrollView repro - thank you, but I'm also seeing the same hitch on List-based screens where this doesn’t apply. Happy to provide any further info.

Hey, I've included a minimal reproducible example here: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/822769

Thanks for confirming! I haven't been able to improve the behaviour when presenting via .sheet or .fullScreenCover - the flash still occurs consistently there. For push navigation, I've had better results with a scrollable destination view (not the case in the MRE I shared). In that case, the transition largely masks the issue and it becomes barely noticeable, although there is still a brief flash on initial appearance. I'll update here if I come across anything that improves it further.