Expected Behavior when relating a table to itself?

I know it's not best practice to relate a table to itself, but there are some use cases. One interesting thing I found, wondering if anyone else has noticed this:

I have a Related Field of course, which holds the 'Parent' Record ID.

If I make a formula number field that is simply a mirror field. Just says [Related Field], it returns 0, no matter what is in the field. Meaning, I cannot use that related field in any way in formulas.

It obviously has something to do with it being related to itself and getting confused. I have not found a work around. Has anyone else experienced this?

Update: It is in fact finding the number but on the wrong record. ie, the child record will show the related field as a number, but the mirror field will show the number only on the parent....it's definitely confused...

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Mike Tamoush
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