Hi,
The second was started with command: daemon --bootstrap /ip4/2nd-VPS-IP/tcp/exposed-port/p2p/peer-id
Shouldn’t it be 1st-VPS-IP and not 2nd ?
The peerstore is only saved on shutdown I think. From your description and the fact that the public IP does not show among the multiaddresses etc, I am inclined to say that both peers did not get connected?
Did ipfs-cluster-ctl peers ls show both peers? Do they show the right addresses there?