I know it is probably not much comfort but I thought I would test and see what happens here. To that end I created a virtual ESXi server and configured the Virtual Machine Startup and Shutdown behaviour on this host with 1 (one) VM. To my surprise after "pulling the plug" on the host and then restarting the host, it too entered maintenance mode. This was consistently repeatable.
Further mucking around kept generating the same response even after patching host with the latest VMware patches. Somewhere along the way it stopped doing it - not sure what the fix was but will continue to test and see if I can locate what "fixed" it.
One thing that has changed is that when the host kept entering Maintenance Mode after a power loss the virtual machine would be listed as Orphaned. Now the VM stays in the inventory.
Kind regards.