Popular Categories Not Working

[vairafiq]

Private Link: https://app.clickup.com/t/20k2ann

[RabbiIslamRony]

Confirmed—the underlying issue is still present. Categories are limited before they are filtered by directory type, which can produce missing or incomplete Popular Categories results. PR #834 contained the intended approach but was closed without being merged. This issue should remain open.

[RabbiIslamRony]

A focused fix is ready in #2950. Directory filtering now happens inside the term query before the configured limit, with support for both indexed and legacy directory metadata. LocalWP verification covered competing high-count categories across directories, root/child filtering, empty terms, duplicate prevention, and the bounded SQL query.