What do you mean by "unless it's been left at the top"?
I mean that when you scroll up and down with you finger, if you take your finger off when the top of the contents are at the top of the scrollable area, the contents do not disappear. (They still cull, which can be seen if you have clipping off). If you leave the scrollview at any other point, eg scrolled to half-way down, the contents disappear. If I scroll again, they appear. The contents appear to disappear at the point that the dragging has stopped - ie when the scrollbar disappears.
Are all of your scroll view panels using unique depths?
I only have one active at a time, but yes they are using different depths and there is no warning about depths being used by other things.
Does your erroneous scroll view's panel have "Visible" checked in its advanced options?
No, and checking that doesn't make any difference.