Privacy mode breaking BLE reconnects

I have a particular device that requires an IRK from BlueZ during pairing. To my limited understanding this is wrong since my Bluetooth adapter uses a public address by default, but I have to live with it in any case. I've found that turning on privacy mode using `btmgmt privacy on` allows BlueZ to pair with the device. However, it also prevents reconnecting to any already-paired BLE device, even if privacy mode was enabled when I paired with it.

This is the sequence of events:
1. Pair with a BLE device.
2. Power off the adapter, run `btmgmt privacy on`, and power the adapter back on.
3. Connect to the device. The connection fails with the status "Connection Failed to be Established" in the LE Read Remote Used Features HCI event.

It makes no difference whether privacy mode is already on when I turn it on. I can connect to the device after re-pairing it.

Since the privacy setting doesn't appear to persist across reboots, I don't have the option of not setting it. Is this behavior expected? Is there a different approach I should be taking with the strange device?

I'm using version 5.39 of bluetoothd and btmgmt with a 4.4.11 kernel. My hardware is the Raspberry Pi 3's BCM43438.

Thanks in advance for any input.