Hi Tom;
  FWIW: Here is what I have been doing in my STD Framework for over two decades now to handle not only menu images but any control that houses an external image.  ;-)
For example, a menu item using an external image ...
IDE
The Menu image & it's toolbar image are assigned as follows:  ".\Images\blue_button.ico"  // aka relative path address in the IDE.
Thus, all images reside in the "Images" sub-folder So now running the PB App from the IDE everything works 100% image rendering wise.
EXE
  I now compile the Image PBL using a PBR into a PBD that now includes all App images used.
  Then I add the following to a suitable event. For the menu items, I use the parent menu item's "Selected" event, as follows ...

IF  go_ac.of_is_pb_ide_active( ) = FALSE  THEN	// Running as EXE?
    THIS.mi_blue.menuimage 	= fn_remove_path_name(THIS.mi_blue.menuimage)	// YES=>Remove path
    THIS.mi_dark.menuimage 	= fn_remove_path_name(THIS.mi_dark.menuimage)
    THIS.mi_grey.menuimage 	= fn_remove_path_name(THIS.mi_grey.menuimage)
    THIS.mi_lime.menuimage      = fn_remove_path_name(THIS.mi_lime.menuimage)
    THIS.mi_orange.menuimage    = fn_remove_path_name(THIS.mi_orange.menuimage)
    THIS.mi_silver.menuimage    = fn_remove_path_name(THIS.mi_silver.menuimage)
    THIS.mi_none.menuimage 	= fn_remove_path_name(THIS.mi_none.menuimage)
END IF

Result

   So with the above code, the App EXE images have *no* path and thus the PB Loader uses the PBD (or DLL for M-Code compiled app) to resolve the images.  This has worked great for me for the past two decades & runs 100% as well in both PC and PS deployed Apps.   :-)
My testing with the PB 2025 RB feature thus far also supports the above design approach with 100% effectiveness.  Food for thought.  HTH
Regards .. Chris

It might be an idea to raise a support ticket, that will allow development to investigate.