I would expect that behavior for versions prior to 2.6.0 but not the 2.6.0 and higher. If you look at the commit all it does is some checking about the versions it detects in the current application’s runtime (those turned out to be unreliable which is why I had them removed). My first thought would be that you are getting an earlier version pulled into your build at some point.
EDIT Try re-enabling the Activate() call. I assumed that the exception was the one I was facing (inability to properly detect version) but if you see a message about “version mismatch” then you have a problem.