The current playlist data is written to the scratch partition when you select it. The position within the playlist is written to flash memory when you power off. Clearly, the latter is happening but not the former.

Does it seem to happen mostly when you select a new playlist very shortly before pulling the player? For instance, you select a new playlist and listen for only a few seconds before yanking the player. I think that the scratch partition stuff may perhaps be deferred-write in 3a7.