cannot launch without internet connection

The game crashes during or immediately after the loading splash screen if no Internet connection is available.  This is very easy for me to reproduce:

• disable wifi
• launch the game
• wait ~30s for crash

It does the same thing if I am connected to a local-only wifi connection without an Internet connection.  If I re-enable wifi, the game launches without issue.

This may be related MCPE-54465, except I have isolated to one specific issue.  The account I am using has character purchases associated with it.  I have not tried with a brand new account.