Figured out the issue, gleba nests invalidate the achievement, which should have been obvious given the description. Sorry for the bad report!

I cannot reproduce it either, something else must be going on (kill count not working?) I can provide the save, but we added mods and killed biter nests later

expectation: Placing power poles should place them the maximal distance apart, such that they still power all entities they could

observed: When ghost-placing power poles (shift clicking) over entities that require power, they are placed closer than required when the power poles are higher quality ...

"Keeping your hands clean" is invalidated when a captured biter nest is not fed