Templater including metadata

What I’m trying to do

I’m Templater as a simple text expander (though it is powerful beyond that). I have a note template that contains only the following:
#tag1, #tag2, #tag3

Previously, when invoking this template, the tags would be added to the target note as above. Now the template file contains the tags as properties in the metadata and the body of the note contains:

tag1, tag2, tag3 as text without the “#”.

If I remove all of the properties manually from the template, the template note is simply repopulated as above with the properties. The result is that all of the property metadata from the template note is inserted into the target note in the body of the note. This is unwanted behavior and brakes Templater for use as a text expander. I have to believe this is due to my lack of knowledge and there must be a simple setting change or other maneuver to avoid this issue, but I have not been able to figure it out.

Things I have tried

Disabling all plug-ins except Templater. Disabling Folder templates in Templater settings.