Chrome OS: Booting from USB launches system repair.

I do Chrome on Chrome OS development via simple-chrome:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/simple_chrome_workflow.md

Lately, every time I boot USB to load a new test image on my eve device, it goes through system repair.
Apparently, this replaces the stateful partition with one that does not have tools I need (rsync, etc.)
So, the next time I try to run deploy_chrome, I need to do dev_install (on a coworker's network jack...)

Here are my latest steps in more detail:
01) Run "git pull" and "gclient sync" to get ToT @ #546195
02) Run "cros chrome-sdk --board=$BOARD --log-level=info --version=10519.0.0" ($BOARD == eve), (see  Issue 826463  for old CHROMEOS_LKGM) this loaded 10517.0.0.
03) Download https://storage.cloud.google.com/chromeos-image-archive/eve-release/R67-10517.0.0/chromiumos_test_image.tar.xz
04) "tar xf <file>" and "cros flash usb:// <extracted file>" to a thumb drive
05) Boot my eve device with the thumb drive plugged in
06) Press Ctrl+U at the boot screen
07) Recovery screen shows up... wait 5 minutes... system reboots... <<< BUMMER!!!
08) Press Ctrl+U at the boot screen again
09) Press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to get into the console, login as root/test0000
10) Run /usr/sbin/chromeos-install
11) Reboot and remove USB drive
12) Press Ctrl+D at the boot screen
13) Sign in and use chrome os at R67-10517.0.0 (I can boot from the same USB thumb drive with the same test image again with no issue...)
14) Build "autoninja -C out_eve/Release chrome chrome_sandbox nacl_helper" in my chrome-sdk
15) Run "deploy_chrome --build-dir=out_eve/Release --to=XXX.XX.XXX.XX" (IP redacted)
16) It offers to remove roots verification, I say "yes", machine reboots
17) It says "rsync is not found on the device." ... "Run dev_install on the device to get rsync installed" <<< BUMMER!!!
18) I try to run dev_install, but it gives an error... (Issue 701955), so use a coworker's network jack... <<< BUMMER!!!
19) Now that rsync is installed, I can deploy chrome.
20) Next, I re-ran through the same steps (2)-(19) using --version=10520.0.0, and hit the same issues...

I would really appreciate any help fixing my device to avoid these extra steps that impede my work.