So, I think I found something, potentially a bug in cakewalk, related to the "EnablePluginCancelButton" as per "Cakewalk - Cakewalk Documentation - Cakewalk.ini" ... i.e.: a bug related to how some very complex plugins are initialized?
I noticed that Massive X remembers the preset when it's the only track in the project... However, the more MIDI tracks I add, the more likely massive X is to "forget" and reset to init. Frustratingly enough there is not a simple number of tracks that throws everything off... I can only say more than 7 MIDI tracks, - more likely it is to cause issues...
(I double checked, and this is not related to my other MIDI gear sending stray messages: I can turn everything off, and turn my cakewalk without any MIDI gear, and massive will still reset ... most of the time. This behaviour is seemingly related to number of MIDI tracks and how complex they are (i.e. in/out assignments vs omni)
workaround:
So with the EnablePluginCancelButton set to 1, in the property window of massive you now have a little VST "cancel" button in the upper right corner (next to the "pin", right below the close window button).
(I saved my project with the massive x property window opened, prominently showing my preset - angelic sprites)
I start cakewalk and re-open my project
I see my original massive X preset briefly, (see top picture below) but massive resets to init X within a second,
I then press that cancel button so massive X property window closes,
when I reopen the massive property window again, magically, Massive X now reverts to the preset that was saved with the project originally... (i.e. un-resets itself...)
Not sure if this is helpful... I'll send this to Cakewalk support and NI support to see if there is anything special that causes this reset behavior for Massive X