Tested official VHS (which definitely appears to be a different transfer) and I'm finding the same thing.
A B C D D A B B A B C D D A B C D E F F A B C C
And that's within the same scene w/o any camera cuts.
No rhyme or reason to the pattern. Using any sort of decimation makes the picture jerky as all heck.
Looks like it is staying interlaced. Ah well.