I solved my own mystery. I had a custom value converter that overwrote the built in ones. Too greedy I made it.

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Html;
using System;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models.PublishedContent;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.PropertyEditors;
using Umbraco.Extensions;

namespace Website.Core.UmbracoValueConverters {
  public class HtmlStringValueConverter : PropertyValueConverterBase {
    public override bool IsConverter( IPublishedPropertyType     propertyType ) {
      return propertyType.EditorAlias.InvariantEquals(     Constants.PropertyEditors.Aliases.MultipleTextstring )
         || propertyType.EditorAlias.InvariantEquals( Constants.PropertyEditors.Aliases.TextArea )
         || propertyType.EditorAlias.InvariantEquals( Constants.PropertyEditors.Aliases.TextBox )
         || propertyType.EditorAlias.InvariantEquals( Constants.PropertyEditors.Aliases.TinyMce );
    }

    public override Type GetPropertyValueType( IPublishedPropertyType propertyType ) {
      return typeof( HtmlString );
    }

    public override object ConvertIntermediateToObject( IPublishedElement owner, IPublishedPropertyType propertyType, PropertyCacheLevel cacheLevel, object source, bool preview ) {
      return new HtmlString( (string)source );
    }
  }
}