MSVC (std:c++17) Optional always returning a value

Question

I'm writing some intersection code for a Ray tracer. After calculating some intersection logic for a sphere, I want to return an optional to determine if there was an intersection or not. Instead of returning an "invalid" value for distance, I want to use C++'s std::optional class. The only issue is that it seems to always return true for has_value():

std::optional<Intersection> Sphere::ray_intersection(Ray ray)
    // Calculate Intersection Logic
    // ...
    if (distance_to_intersection < 0) {
        return std::nullopt;
    } else {
        return Intersection(ray, distance_to_intersection);
    }
}

After returning, I check using the following code:

if (sphere.ray_intersection(ray).has_value()) {
    return shade(sphere, intersection);
} else {
    return background_color;
}

I know the actual intersection logic works correctly, because when I replace return std::nullopt; with return Intersection(ray, -1); (an invalid distance) and then simply check if the distance is equal to -1 in the previous if check, it behaves as expected.

I've also tried returning a simple {} to no avail.

I'm currently using Microsoft Visual Studio 2022, and I have tried both the C++17 and C++20 compilers, and neither will behave as I'm expecting.

Is there a specific way that std::optional operates that I'm not aware of?