I just discovered this annoyance
(here's my request for help). Should I call it a glitch, buglet, misfeature? It is definitely not right.
During preroll or precount, monitoring is muted even for tracks that are record armed and therefore about to be recorded. In some workflows, this makes it impossible to listen to the signal before recording starts.
One such impossible workflow:
(Metronome set to, e.g., 2 bars preroll)
Place edit cursor where you want to start recording
Press Record
Play along for 2 bars before recording starts.
I'm betting there is a reason for this; I just can't imagine what it might be.