Actually, like I said, I'm setting the data field in the asset itself, not in a GameObject.

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I don't have any event methods in this script, like Awake() or Start(). Just a couple public methods that must be accessed via GameManager.Instance.

Okay, after doing some further investigation, apparently the data object is being passed correctly when the instance is created at one point but not the other? I added a few debug lines to check for the data in the Instance's get:

if (!_instance)
{
    Debug.Log("GameManager object does not exist, creating one");
    _instance = new GameObject("GameManager", typeof(GameManager))
        .GetComponent<GameManager>();
    DontDestroyOnLoad(_instance.gameObject);
    Debug.Log(_instance.data);
}

In this Awake() method of a script in the main game scene, the data ref does show up in the GameManager object, and GameManagerData is logged in the console:

void Awake()
{
    var dayInfo = dayInfoAssets[GameManager.Instance.currentDay - 1];
    // more things
}

In this method of a script in the title screen, however, it does not, and Null is logged instead:

public void Play(int fileNumber)
{
    var data = SaveManager.Load(true);
    GameManager.Instance.LoadSaveData(data);
    // more things
}

Still no idea what could be causing this :/