I'm going to open an SPR on this one but wanted to put it to the group to see if anyone had a work-around and otherwise put out a warning.
SolidWorks 2024 SP2.0

When inserting a component with mate references, SolidWorks behaves normally if the component isn't placed where the mate reference can pick up a matching geometry.  The insert component command exits after the component is inserted.
If however