Two more things noticed.
(1) running 'emacs' in a terminal window seems to work all the time, vs. clicking on the icon and using the launcher. From a terminal window it brings up a maximized emacs fine multiple times, managed by the window manager. (This isn't 'emacs -nw' which is entirely different.)
(2) this problem also reproduces in a VM under VMware. Same bad behavior, also intermittent, when run in a VM on Windows. Doesn't rule out timing/race conditions, but makes it less likely.
And although (1) may be a temporary workaround, please do not consider it a solution. ;-)
Two more things noticed.
(1) running 'emacs' in a terminal window seems to work all the time, vs. clicking on the icon and using the launcher. From a terminal window it brings up a maximized emacs fine multiple times, managed by the window manager. (This isn't 'emacs -nw' which is entirely different.)
(2) this problem also reproduces in a VM under VMware. Same bad behavior, also intermittent, when run in a VM on Windows. Doesn't rule out timing/race conditions, but makes it less likely.
And although (1) may be a temporary workaround, please do not consider it a solution. ;-)