No it's as simple as misreading special characters. There are key words in the bank description or narrative that QBO is leaving out and is blind to. For example, if the bank description is

"Johns repairs Dec inv"

I'm finding that QBO will have in the description in the rule just "Dec inv".  What happened to "Johns repairs" I have no idea.

I can't then simply add "Johns repairs" to the rule (and actually remove "Dec inv" which is the part I don't want), because QBO CANNOT EVEN SEE "Johns repairs".

Am I am going insane or is this case of the Emperors Clothes and the vast majority of users just assume that QBO can't create bank rules???