I had the same on the 179 Test Server. Wanted to plot a Cave inside a mountain. Ui showed “Wild” not “Reserved”, but Server denied because of existing beacon.
But there was in fact a beacon way up on top of the mountain, but the game client only recognized it when i got very close to it.
I also see a lot of beacons that look like burned out in the wild lately, but they start to burn again as I come closer.
I guess thats related. Maybe some optimization to save network traffic?