tvOS 26.3: Focus skips UICollectionView inside UITableViewCell with warning "already-visited container"

I am working on a tvOS app using Swift, where my UI structure is:

A UITableView

Each UITableViewCell contains a UICollectionView

The table has 3 sections:

Section 1 → Horizontal UICollectionView

Section 2 → Horizontal UICollectionView

Section 3 → Vertical UICollectionView

Expected Behavior:

Focus should move normally between sections:

Section 1 → Section 2 → Section 3

And also back: Section 3 → Section 2 → Section 1

Issue:

After upgrading to tvOS 26.3 (Xcode 26.3), I am facing a focus issue:

Moving focus forward (1 → 2 → 3) works correctly

But when moving backward (3 → 2):

Focus skips Section 2 completely

It directly moves to Section 1

Warning in Xcode Console:

Ignoring attempt to add focus items in already-visited container. This can potentially cause infinite recursion.

Important Notes:

This issue only happens on tvOS 26.3

The same code works perfectly on tvOS 18.5

No changes were made to focus handling logic

The app is already complete — this is a regression after OS upgrade

What I suspect:

It seems related to:

Focus engine changes in newer tvOS

Or some recursive / circular focus hierarchy issue due to nested UICollectionView inside UITableViewCell

Question:

Why is the focus engine skipping the second section?

What causes the already-visited container warning in this case?

Is there any change in tvOS 26 focus system that requires different handling?

How can I fix focus traversal between nested collection views?