Track template problem in 8.3.1 and 8.5.1?

Are you going by the track name? That track template will be saved with whatever name was in it at the time. If the track was created by inserting a synth  in the rack, it will have that synth instance's name. When you insert from template, a new synth will be inserted n the rack, and that new synth will be assigned as input to the new track, but the name will still refer to the old synth.

If you're using Instrument tracks, the problem is that you have no way of seeing what the audio input is for that track. But if you use a regular Audio track as the soft synth host, you can see that the new synth is properly assigned as the input to the new track.

AHA!
 
ok. there is an essential piece of info missing in the above (i will update those posts):
 
this problem only occurs if you have NO INPUTS enabled on your soundcard.  as soon as you enable an input, the problem goes away. so that may explain why few see it.
 
let me explain:
 
i have two soundcards. one has headphone outputs so i occasionally switch to it when working in the early hours...anyway, since i  am usually working on mixes during those hours rather than recording, i usually don't bother to enable the audio inputs on that card. this morning, while using that second soundcard with the inputs disabled, i noticed the issue i described above.
 
once i had switched back to my standard soundcard and enabled the inputs again, i noticed the templates thing suddenly worked again. that's when i narrowed it down to any soundcard with inputs disabled (at least mine, an RME HDSP9652, and a Native Instruments Rig Kontrol2).
 
so: definitely a bug, but not critical.
 
 

this problem only occurs if you have NO INPUTS enabled on your soundcard.  as soon as you enable an input, the problem goes away.

Verified. Happens with Audio track templates, too, which make it easy to see that the Input is always the first synth instance, until you enable at least one audio input.

But I doubt this one will even make it out of the Bakers' cupboard and onto the back burner, much less the front burner.   Maybe if it's a ridiculously easy fix which it may be. Otherwise, not enough people are going to encounter this to make the effort worthwhile.