I can confirm the root cause is somehow tied to wake up animation, as LennethW suggested. I had previously downloaded a few custom boot videos, switch to them, then back to the default movie. However, the “use as wake up animation” toggle was still set to on. When I toggled it off, everything started working as expected and I no longer have issues launching apps after the SD is woken up from sleep.

You’re not my father and you never will be!