Wow, that's a rather unfortunate situation. I can't imagine how this helps anyone really, but it seems the decision isn't going to be reversed so I'll look elsewhere. Thanks for the response @Harvey.

This issue still occurs as of 2018-11-10. I've noticed this issue in other 'distros' as well, doubt it's Solus-specific. More system info in the odd chance it helps: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/fn5Mwx98GT/

In T6123#113195, @sunnyflunk wrote:

Someone want to try this with both kernels to verify it works?
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=387454#c25
Basically change line 4 in /usr/lib64/udev/rules.d/69-libmtp.rules
ACTION!="add", GOTO="libmtp_rules_end"
to
ACTION!="bind", ACTION!="add" GOTO="libmtp_rules_end"

I've gone ahead with the LTS kernel and it seems this doesn't happen with it. It still acts a little weird, like the connection itself is unstable, despite me checking cables and both devices thoroughly, but it is working.

In T6123#111253, @sunnyflunk wrote:

Can someone validate that it does indeed work when booting the lts kernel? Or I'll do it when I get back.

Ah, I'm picking up what you're putting down. Would that explain why I can't find the gnome-shell-extensions package in SC, and that's the package that gets removed when removing Workspace Indicator from the SC?