RHEL 7 Kickstart - %packages --retries= not working

I'm working on customizing rhel-server-7.9-x86_64-dvd.iso to include a kickstart file which automatically partitions the disk and installs a "minimal" OS (no GUI stuff at all), and I'm trying to figure out which packages actually need to be included in the Packages/ directory.

One of the problems I'm running into is that, if the Packages/ directory is missing an RPM which is needed, the installer loops through ten instances of Error populating transaction, anaconda is retrying (1/10).

Two problems:

• The only way to find the name of the missing package is to wait until the ten retries are done, then look at the end of /tmp/packaging.log.
• The first five attempts finish fairly quickly (i.e. about 10 seconds total), but the last five take longer and longer, resulting in the whole process taking about TEN MINUTES before I can see the filename, move the package back, make a new ISO, and test it again.

The documentation says that the %packages directive has a --retries= option. I've tried --retries=5, but it still makes ten attempts with ever-greater timeouts before giving me the next filename.

Is this a known issue? If so, are there any known work-arounds? The repo it's trying to install from is part of the image it booted from, and has a file:// URL, so retries shouldn't be necessary to begin with.