Featurizing a role, losing permissions
I was confusing two different things. Because of the way Features handles permissions and roles, there are three pieces, not just two.

What I thought was happening:


I add Myrole to the Feature.
I add mypermission1, mypermission2, mypermission3, etc. to my Feature.
I save my Feature and user with Myrole will have mypermissions 1, 2, 3, etc.


What actually needs to happen:


I add Myrole to the Feature
I add mypermission1, mypermission2, mypermission3, etc. to my Feature.
I make sure that Myrole's permissions in my current config actually include mypermissions 1, 2, 3, etc.
I save my Feature and user with Myrole will have mypermissions 1, 2, 3, etc.


The first one exports whatever the state of mypermissions 1, 2, 3, etc. is at the moment of the export which means that if the role in your config does not actually have those permissions, your Feature will specify that your role does not have those permissions, explicitly. Backwards from what I was trying to do.