MQTT Event keeps coming back as 'Retained' - how to turn that off?

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Thanks everyone for all your suggestions. But I’m tired of digging this rabbit hole.

Apparently MQTT Publish doesn’t actually work, so a Python script should be tried in its place.
Or just delete the whole MQTT database and start over.
No

There are 397 open issues for MQTT on GitHub, this is one of them. Seeing all those, and that it is unable perform the simple task of Honoring the Retain Flag, its clear Eclipse MQTT Broker is a product riddled with bugs and not fit for use.

I’m going to find a different process that doesn’t require MQTT or Home Assistant to accomplish this simple task.

Thanks again for everyone’s suggestions. Sorry MQTT is so far beyond hope.