Hello!
Transport transforms and migrates metadata; it doesn’t copy it. So, after transporting, the old data is replaced — in other words, yes, the original Rank Math metadata is lost. Transport also cleans up much of the junk that Rank Math leaves behind, so your database will be much cleaner after the import.
TSF stores its post metadata in the same _genesis_* fields that Genesis uses — it was originally an extension of the Genesis Framework. This means that if you deactivate TSF after importing, Genesis will still read the imported post metadata (title, description, canonical URL, robots).
That said, I recommend against relying on Genesis for SEO. SEO is out of scope for a theme — it should do theme stuff. We actually use the Genesis Framework for our own website, and TSF was born from it (originally, it just filled in Genesis’s description fields, hence the plugin slug “autodescription”). When TSF is active, it disables Genesis’s SEO output and puts a robustly refined SEO powerhouse in its place. Since Genesis inspired our design philosophy, you’ll feel right at home — but with structured data, social meta, advanced robots, sitemaps, advanced query protection, and much more at your disposal.
Thank you for your detailed explanations. My education on these matters continues. Much appreciated.
