This is two related bugs I have found that are most likely caused by a similar issue if not the same one.

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First:
When doing multiple sequential substitutions, variables are getting resolved alphabetically rather than in the order that they were found in the properties content/file.

***Example properties content:
VAR1=VALUE
VAR2=${VAR1}
VAR3=${VAR2}
VAR4=${VAR3}

VAR9=VALUE
VAR8=${VAR9}
VAR7=${VAR8}
VAR6=${VAR7}

***Example Output:
VAR1=VALUE
VAR2=VALUE
VAR3=VALUE
VAR4=VALUE

VAR6=${VAR8} <-- Should be resolved to VALUE
VAR7=${VAR9} <-- Should be resolved to VALUE
VAR8=VALUE
VAR9=VALUE

It seems like the implementation puts all the variables in an alphabetically sorted list and then steps through
the list and tries to resolve each variable resolving 1 extra step deep. For example, since this is done seemingly alphabetically, VAR6 is resolved before VAR7 (incorrectly). It seems then that since VAR6=${VAR7}, which is not resolved, the code goes one step further total to resolve VAR7 to ${VAR8} and then quits (not recursive) to yield VAR6=${VAR8}.
Implementing the resolving sequentially as found in the properties file/content would resolve this issue entirely. This gives the build step implementer control over the variable resolution order as well as prevents a circular resolving problem that occurs when doing an alphabetical resolution process (which I'm guessing is why resolving only goes 2 total steps deep).

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Second:
This bug only occurs when using a properties file, but not a properties content section. If the ${WORKSPACE} variable is used in a properties file and comes alphabetically after the variable being assigned it will not be resolved.

***Example properties file:
VAR_FILE_Z=${WORKSPACE}
VAR_FILE_Y=${VAR_FILE_Z}
VAR_FILE_X=${VAR_FILE_Y}

ZVAR_FILE_Z=${WORKSPACE}
ZVAR_FILE_Y=${ZVAR_FILE_Z}
ZVAR_FILE_X=${ZVAR_FILE_Y}

***Example output (WORKSPACE=D:\jenkins_\temp)
VAR_FILE_X=${VAR_FILE_Z} <-- Same as problem #1 above
VAR_FILE_Y=${WORKSPACE} <-- Should be resolved to D:\jenkins_\temp.
VAR_FILE_Z=D:\jenkins_\temp

ZVAR_FILE_X=${ZVAR_FILE_Z} <-- Same as problem #1 above
ZVAR_FILE_Y=D:\jenkins_\temp
ZVAR_FILE_Z=D:\jenkins_\temp

If that same content in the properties file is pasted into the properties content section, than the WORKSPACE is resolved correctly. It seems to be related to problem #1 above because it does not occur when re-ordered alphabetically as shown (that is making WORKSPACE come before the variable name ZVAR...)