This is an improvement and good to know, there was a time when bootctl install would not consider /boot/efi. Perhaps this improvement has been made to enable a smoother transition from grub to systemd-boot - no matter what - it is an improvement I wasn’t aware of.
Thank you for enlightening me.
@davodego
In any case - as it has been established
that your system is not always booted in EFI mode - and the fact that systemd-boot is an UEFI loader mechanism - you MUST ensure your system does not boot in BIOS/MBR mode.
If you fail to do that - you will continue to struggle with the system.