smartctl-validate fails to detect that NVME device is SMART-capable

I have WD Black gaming NVMEs in many systems and each fails to detect SMART capability during commission test of smartctl-validate.

When deployed with ubuntu 20.04 I can successfully manually detect SMART is enabled and read out attributes.

version:
MAAS version: 2.8.2 (8577-g.a3e674063)

smartctl-validate output:
INFO: Veriying SMART support for the following drive: /dev/nvme0n1
INFO: Running command: sudo -n smartctl --all /dev/nvme0n1
INFO: Unable to run test. The following drive does not support SMART: /dev/nvme0n1

NVME PN:
WDS500G3X0C-00SJG0

Manual output:
$ sudo apt install -y smartmontools
...
$ sudo -n smartctl --all /dev/nvme0n1
smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.4.0-53-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number: WDS500G3X0C-00SJG0
Serial Number: 20155F801224
Firmware Version: 102000WD
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID: 0x15b7
IEEE OUI Identifier: 0x001b44
Total NVM Capacity: 500,107,862,016 [500 GB]
Unallocated NVM Capacity: 0
Controller ID: 8215
Number of Namespaces: 1
Namespace 1 Size/Capacity: 500,107,862,016 [500 GB]
Namespace 1 Formatted LBA Size: 512
Namespace 1 IEEE EUI-64: 001b44 8b460ae51d
Local Time is: Sun Nov 15 15:16:50 2020 UTC
Firmware Updates (0x14): 2 Slots, no Reset required
Optional Admin Commands (0x0017): Security Format Frmw_DL Self_Test
Optional NVM Commands (0x001f): Comp Wr_Unc DS_Mngmt Wr_Zero Sav/Sel_Feat
Maximum Data Transfer Size: 128 Pages
Warning Comp. Temp. Threshold: 80 Celsius
Critical Comp. Temp. Threshold: 85 Celsius
Namespace 1 Features (0x02): NA_Fields

Supported Power States
St Op Max Active Idle RL RT WL WT Ent_Lat Ex_Lat
 0 + 5.50W - - 0 0 0 0 0 0
 1 + 3.50W - - 1 1 1 1 0 0
 2 + 3.00W - - 2 2 2 2 0 0
 3 - 0.0700W - - 3 3 3 3 4000 10000
 4 - 0.0025W - - 4 4 4 4 4000 45000

Supported LBA Sizes (NSID 0x1)
Id Fmt Data Metadt Rel_Perf
 0 + 512 0 2
 1 - 4096 0 1

=== START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02)
Critical Warning: 0x00
Temperature: 30 Celsius
Available Spare: 100%
Available Spare Threshold: 10%
Percentage Used: 0%
Data Units Read: 1,982,008 [1.01 TB]
Data Units Written: 2,032,199 [1.04 TB]
Host Read Commands: 2,412,892
Host Write Commands: 2,959,947
Controller Busy Time: 36
Power Cycles: 86
Power On Hours: 243
Unsafe Shutdowns: 37
Media and Data Integrity Errors: 0
Error Information Log Entries: 0
Warning Comp. Temperature Time: 0
Critical Comp. Temperature Time: 0

Error Information (NVMe Log 0x01, max 256 entries)
No Errors Logged