There are a few possibilities - either that URL is hardcoded in wp-config or a theme file (check for define in wp-config and if any is setting the URL) or there’s a theme file with update_option setting the staging URL.
Other reasons might be that DevKinsta is unable to perform search-replace for some reason. If the above checks don’t show any code that might be doing it, please share your main.log file (as described here).
heya, so it magically worked today. Nothing changed other than a shutdown and reboot of the computer. I’m going to turn off the lights on this thread for now and if it reoccurs, i’ll pop back with more details! thanks, KL