Using Images in Color Node - A Bug?

I've been having a lot of fun playing around with this new version of FF and have been delighted to discover that the default colour of the Color Node is no longer that garish pink. At last.

But I do have a query about how images loaded into the colour node behave when interacting with other nodes and whether this is a quirk or a bug.

When an image is selected, rather than a colour, the image - by default - doesn't tile which is fair enough. When connected to other nodes it produces a result which is not always desired, as is illustrated in the attached image.

Of course, to get around this problem all you have to do is select the 'tile' option for the image. The issue with this [and what may be a bug] is that you MUST select this option every single time you want to apply it. You can NOT save this as a preset - the setting for the image does not 'stick'. Well, I couldn't get it to do so.

Of course I may be missing something obvious and hope that I am as this glitch slows down the workflow.

Thanks for explaining the reason behind the behaviour of the colour node. It clears a lot up for me.