The bug
If you summon a skeleton horse with PersistenceRequired, it will despawn once it's SkeletonTrapTime reaches 18000 just like a skeleton horse without PersistenceRequired.
How to reproduce
Switch to Spectator mode:
/gamemode spectatorSpawn a skeleton trap horse with the
PersistenceRequiredtag and aSkeletonTrapTimeof17900:/summon skeleton_horse ~ ~ ~ {SkeletonTrap:1,PersistenceRequired:1,SkeletonTrapTime:17900}→ ❌ The skeleton trap horse despawns after 5 seconds
Confirmed in 1.16.1 and 20w28a.