Muted iMessage conversation still sending haptic taps to Apple Watch

I have 3 chat groups in Messages that I have permanently on mute (mute settings have been verified in both the phone & watch messages apps). My Apple Watch Ultra 2 (Watch OS 11.4) settings are set to mirror my iPhone (iPhone 16 Pro iOS 18.4). Unfortunately I still get haptic taps on my wrist from the watch on just one of these chats.

Any thoughts on how to remedy this?

The watch and phone have been restarted and settings verified as above several times. This has been happening off & on for the past year (even with iPhone 15 Pro I had last year). I have not been tracking which OS updates seemed to re-introduce the issue vs. when it kept my intended settings.

Yes, I have already verified settings with the Watch Notifications FAQ.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]