subsite default groups association demo why it doesnt work

createSubSiteBasicTestGroups.ps1

Clear-Host
#my tenancy
#based upon 
#https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/239489/sharepoint-pnp-powershell-how-to-provision-sub-webs-with-unique-permissions-an
#at this poiint this doesn not setup the association, so it doesnt work. sets up the groups nicely though
$UserName= "tristian2@******.onmicrosoft.com"  
$Password = "*******"  
$SiteUrl = "https://******.sharepoint.com"
$subsite = "testSubSite"
$subsiteTitle = "test SubSite"
$subSiteUrl = "$SiteUrl/$subsite"    
$Credentials = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -argumentlist $userName, $(convertto-securestring $Password -asplaintext -force)
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteUrl -Credentials $Credentials 
#remove if already there...
Remove-PnPWeb -Url $subSite -Force
New-PnPWeb -Title $subsiteTitle -Url "testSubSite" -Description "we want to setup a new subsite to make sure that sharing works for it, in order to do that, we ensure certian OOB groups are present" `
    -Locale 1033 -Template "STS#0" -BreakInheritance 

$owner = (Get-PnPContext).Credentials.UserName

#Create default groups for the new web
#here, by default owner will be the person provisioning the groups
$ownerGroup = New-PnPGroup -Title "$subsiteTitle Owners" -Owner $owner
Set-PnPGroup -Identity $ownerGroup -SetAssociatedGroup Owners

$memberGroup = New-PnPGroup -Title "$subsiteTitle Members"  -Owner $owner
Set-PnPGroup -Identity $memberGroup -SetAssociatedGroup Members

$visitorGroup = New-PnPGroup -Title "$subsiteTitle Visitors" -Owner $owner
Set-PnPGroup -Identity $visitorGroup -SetAssociatedGroup Visitors

#Apply template with groups.  Templates applies OK, but groups are not defined  
#Apply-PnPProvisioningTemplate -Path C:\ProjectSiteTemplate.xml -Web projectB