diff --git a/lib/resourcemerge/core.go b/lib/resourcemerge/core.go
index b6f4df761..9f3288c6b 100644
--- a/lib/resourcemerge/core.go
+++ b/lib/resourcemerge/core.go
@@ -112,13 +112,6 @@ func ensureContainer(modified *bool, existing *corev1.Container, required corev1
 
 func ensureEnvVar(modified *bool, existing *[]corev1.EnvVar, required []corev1.EnvVar) {
 	for envidx := range required {
-		// Currently only CVO deployment uses this variable to inject internal LB host.
-		// This may result in an IP address being returned by API so assuming the
-		// returned value is correct.
-		if required[envidx].Name == "KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST" {
-			ensureEnvVarKubeService(*existing, &required[envidx])
-		}
-
 		if required[envidx].ValueFrom != nil {
 			ensureEnvVarSourceFieldRefDefault(required[envidx].ValueFrom.FieldRef)
 		}
@@ -129,14 +122,6 @@ func ensureEnvVar(modified *bool, existing *[]corev1.EnvVar, required []corev1.E
 	}
 }
 
-func ensureEnvVarKubeService(existing []corev1.EnvVar, required *corev1.EnvVar) {
-	for envidx := range existing {
-		if existing[envidx].Name == required.Name {
-			required.Value = existing[envidx].Value
-		}
-	}
-}
-
 func ensureEnvVarSourceFieldRefDefault(required *corev1.ObjectFieldSelector) {
 	if required != nil && required.APIVersion == "" {
 		required.APIVersion = "v1"
diff --git a/lib/resourcemerge/core_test.go b/lib/resourcemerge/core_test.go
index 4ca897854..29db68f3e 100644
--- a/lib/resourcemerge/core_test.go
+++ b/lib/resourcemerge/core_test.go
@@ -1640,6 +1640,26 @@ func TestEnsureEnvVar(t *testing.T) {
 			},
 			expectedModified: false,
 		},
+		{
+			name: "CVO can inject LB into ENVVAR",
+			existing: []corev1.EnvVar{
+				{Name: "ENVVAR", Value: "127.0.0.1"},
+			},
+			input: []corev1.EnvVar{
+				{Name: "ENVVAR", Value: "api-int.ci-ln-vqs15yk-72292.gcp-2.ci.openshift.org"},
+			},
+			expectedModified: true,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "CVO can inject LB into KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST",
+			existing: []corev1.EnvVar{
+				{Name: "KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST", Value: "127.0.0.1"},
+			},
+			input: []corev1.EnvVar{
+				{Name: "KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST", Value: "api-int.ci-ln-vqs15yk-72292.gcp-2.ci.openshift.org"},
+			},
+			expectedModified: true,
+		},
 	}
 	for _, test := range tests {
 		t.Run(test.name, func(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/pkg/start/start.go b/pkg/start/start.go
index 40309b1d1..6785a8341 100644
--- a/pkg/start/start.go
+++ b/pkg/start/start.go
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import (
 	apierrors "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/errors"
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
 	utilruntime "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/runtime"
+	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/wait"
 	"k8s.io/client-go/informers"
 	"k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes"
 	"k8s.io/client-go/kubernetes/scheme"
@@ -133,19 +134,37 @@ func (o *Options) Run(ctx context.Context) error {
 	// check to see if techpreview should be on or off.  If we cannot read the featuregate for any reason, it is assumed
 	// to be off.  If this value changes, the binary will shutdown and expect the pod lifecycle to restart it.
 	startingFeatureSet := ""
-	gate, err := cb.ClientOrDie("feature-gate-getter").ConfigV1().FeatureGates().Get(ctx, "cluster", metav1.GetOptions{})
-	switch {
-	case apierrors.IsNotFound(err):
-		// if we have no featuregates, then the cluster is using the default featureset, which is "".
-		// This excludes everything that could possibly depend on a different feature set.
-		startingFeatureSet = ""
-	case err != nil:
-		// client-go automatically retries network blip errors on GETs for 30s by default.  If we fail longer than that
-		// the operator won't be able to do work anyway.  Return the error and crashloop.
-		return err
 
-	default:
-		startingFeatureSet = string(gate.Spec.FeatureSet)
+	// client-go automatically retries some network blip errors on GETs for 30s by default, and we want to
+	// retry the remaining ones ourselves. If we fail longer than that, the operator won't be able to do work
+	// anyway. Return the error and crashloop.
+	//
+	// We implement the timeout with a context because the timeout in PollImmediateWithContext does not behave
+	// well when ConditionFunc takes longer time to execute, like here where the GET can be retried by client-go
+	fgCtx, fgCancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, 25*time.Second)
+	defer fgCancel()
+	var lastError error
+	if err := wait.PollImmediateInfiniteWithContext(fgCtx, 2*time.Second, func(ctx context.Context) (bool, error) {
+		gate, fgErr := cb.ClientOrDie("feature-gate-getter").ConfigV1().FeatureGates().Get(ctx, "cluster", metav1.GetOptions{})
+		switch {
+		case apierrors.IsNotFound(fgErr):
+			// if we have no featuregates, then the cluster is using the default featureset, which is "".
+			// This excludes everything that could possibly depend on a different feature set.
+			startingFeatureSet = ""
+			return true, nil
+		case fgErr != nil:
+			lastError = fgErr
+			klog.Warningf("Failed to get FeatureGate from cluster: %v", fgErr)
+			return false, nil
+		default:
+			startingFeatureSet = string(gate.Spec.FeatureSet)
+			return true, nil
+		}
+	}); err != nil {
+		if lastError != nil {
+			return lastError
+		}
+		return err
 	}
 
 	lock, err := createResourceLock(cb, o.Namespace, o.Name)