Hey Mike,
did u check this discussion? maybe this helps?
…tells the compiler not to compile Razor views. : Production\local IIS mode expects compiled views, but these settings prevent compilation. The result is that Umbraco can’t find the templates and returns 404 (Page Not Found) errors Umbraco - or in your case, template content appears blank/disappears because the runtime can’t locate or persist the .cshtml files correctly.
The backoffice editor still shows the editor UI (which is why you can type in it), but when you hit save, the file write either fails silently or the runtime just ignores loose .cshtml files entirely because it’s expecting compiled views