Looks like Apple broke #CloudKit sync in OS 26.4. Remote notifications don’t seem to arrive, so no updates unless the app is relaunched. https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/820550
iCloud Sync not working with iPhon… | Apple Developer Forums

I somehow assumed Apple would treat the #CloudKit bug as top priority without giving it a second thought, so I actually overlooked the phrasing the DTS engineer used in their post that @iandundas pointed out. Kinda crazy!
Good news! Based on my initial tests on iOS 26.5 beta and reports from others in the community, CloudKit sync seems to be working again.