Because time isn't flowing? How are you

[turbid briar]

I'm calling a function in the body of Update in a Handler object, which has a reference to my desired entity and updates the transform's dimenions with some relevant logic

moving this here:
also, https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/comments/mopxpv/setting_transformposition_during_timetimescale_0/gu54mvs/

Setting transform.position during Time.timeScale 0?
transforms will update, [...]

Okay, I kept digging, and I am finding that I'm able to set the transform values for things in the inspectory
I don't know why my object of interest isn't being set as desired, but I suspect that the value is being reset immediately to somehting that I don't want

[worldly bear]

Do a search and check if you're setting the position elsewhere. Like in an animation perhaps.