@jcar87 I have checked the protobuf->protoc case, in the included protobuf_BUILD_MODULES we can find:

 # Locate protoc executable
    ## Workaround for legacy "cmake" generator in case of cross-build
    if(CMAKE_CROSSCOMPILING)
        find_program(PROTOC_PROGRAM NAMES protoc PATHS ENV PATH NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
    endif()
    ## And here this will work fine with "CMakeToolchain" (for native & cross-build)
    ## and legacy "cmake" generator in case of native build
    if(NOT PROTOC_PROGRAM)
        find_program(PROTOC_PROGRAM NAMES protoc)
    endif()

that means, that as long the "build" context with the build profile keeps being build_type=Release, it doesn't really affect that the module that is loaded is the Debug or Release one, the same protoc from the "build" context is found.

Of course there might be other cases where it will reference some in-package things, but this wouldn't be the recommended case in general.