I've hit the same issue with a different printer. After a bit of digging it seems that there actually is something buggy in setting initial_extruder_nr in the case that there are no adhesion structures selected: https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/issues/15673
It's a pretty unique case and the workaround I have found for now is to simply enable a skirt. Then the correct extruder is selected AND you get some nice pre-extrusion ;)