stimulus controller not firing on requestSubmit

The following stimulus controller

import { Controller } from "stimulus"
export default class extends Controller {
  connect() {
    let that = this;
    that.element.addEventListener('change', _.debounce(that.handleChange, 500))
  }
  handleChange(event) {
    event.preventDefault()
    event.target.form.requestSubmit()
  }
}

is referenced from the Rails application.js file

import { Application } from "@hotwired/stimulus"
import "controllers"

const application = Application.start()

// Configure Stimulus development experience
application.debug = false
window.Stimulus   = application

export { application }

and is rerefenced with its digest in the header of the page.
<link rel="modulepreload" href="/assets/controllers/buttonless-e2d65585b825be08ee9863e11720e29cf389075ede5ba34fb01abe0d03412d97.js">

However, the form on the page

<%= turbo_frame_tag dom_id(@garment, :intl) do %>
  <%= form_with(model: Measure.new, data: { controller: "buttonless" }) do |form| %>
    <%= form.hidden_field :garment_id, value: @garment.id %>
    <%= form.hidden_field :sequence, value: @next_sequence %>
    <%= form.text_field :value %>
  <% end %> 
<% end %>

and renders as

<form data-controller="buttonless" action="/measures" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post"><input type="hidden" name="authenticity_token" value="[..]IoV1GW4g" autocomplete="off">
  <input value="1" autocomplete="off" type="hidden" name="measure[garment_id]" id="garment_id">
  <input value="1" autocomplete="off" type="hidden" name="measure[sequence]" id="measure_sequence">
  <input type="text" name="gmeasure[value]" id="measure_value">
</form>

The browser console does not register any errors, whereas a view-source on the page does not reference the data controller
<form action="/measures" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post"> I am not certain what is at play for this point

clicking in the field, entering data, then tabbing out does not register any submission as expected. What is mistaken here?