One of the upstream users hit by this bug has provided some impressive corroboration that this is in fact the root cause. All the missing objects had read times in excess of 1 hour. The one with the smallest read time was 1 hour and 53 seconds, so just barely over the threshold set by the default value of rgw_gc_obj_min_wait. See: https://tracker.ceph.com/issues/47866?next_issue_id=48255#note-59
Another individual from the same upstream user provided additional corroboration that we have the root cause. In fact, I believe we can be *certain* at this point. He modified parameters and forced a slow download with `curl`. He then saw tail objects appear on the GC queue. See: https://tracker.ceph.com/issues/47866?next_issue_id=48255#note-62
Since the problem described in this bug report should be resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For information on the advisory (Moderate: Red Hat Ceph Storage 4.1 security and bug fix update), and where to find the updated files, follow the link below. If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report. https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2020:5325