Effort picker shows a level as selected while requests are silently applied at a lower level, with no warning

Environment: VS Code extension v2.1.241 (reproduced across a session that also survived a window reload), macOS, Claude Sonnet 5, Pro/Max-class plan.

What happened: The effort picker (Shift+Tab menu / mode indicator) showed "Extra high" (xhigh) as the selected effort, with the slider fully right and no error or warning shown anywhere in the UI. Despite this, every completed turn was actually being processed at high, not xhigh — confirmed directly from the session transcript's effort field on the assistant message entries (not inferred from the UI), across many consecutive turns over roughly an hour, with no single turn actually landing at xhigh during that window.

Evidence (from the session transcript, ~/.claude/projects/<project>/<session-id>.jsonl, effort field on assistant-type entries):

effort: high | 2026-08-23T21:51:35.051Z
effort: high | 2026-08-23T21:51:35.477Z
effort: high | 2026-08-23T21:51:39.695Z
effort: high | 2026-08-23T21:52:12.181Z

All from a session where the picker displayed "Extra high" selected the entire time. No corrective action was taken between these turns other than normal conversation.

Fix found: Explicitly re-opening the effort picker and re-selecting "Extra high" — even though it already appeared selected — caused the very next turns to correctly show effort: xhigh:

effort: xhigh | 2026-08-23T21:53:52.214Z
effort: xhigh | 2026-08-23T21:53:55.633Z

Expected: Either the picker should never show a level as selected when it isn't actually being applied, or — matching the existing behavior for org-level effort caps ("a warning names the requested and applied levels") — a visible warning should surface when a requested effort silently downgrades.

Actual: Silent, sustained desync between displayed and applied state, invisible without directly inspecting the session transcript. Re-selecting the already-selected value is what resolves it, which is a confusing, undiscoverable fix.

Note: I don't have a minimal repro for how the session entered this state — it may be related to the session having started, then a later settings.json change to the default effort level (effortLevel), then a VS Code window reload. Happy to provide the full session transcript privately if useful.