1.18.1 release did include a rework of local activities, from release note:
### Comprehensive rework of Local Activity Worker implementation
* Local Activities now respect all the timeouts set on `LocalActivityOptions`.
* Lower ScheduleToStart latencies for Local Activities and a backpressure that prefers retries over new executions
* `LocalActivityOptions` got `scheduleToStart` timeout
* Bugfix for OpenTelemetry/OpenTracing incorrectly showing exaggerated scheduleToStart latency for Local Activities ([#1573](https://github.com/temporalio/sdk-java/pull/1573))
.setStartToCloseTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(10))
local activities are meant for very fast operations that do not exceed workflow task timeout (10s), they are not meant for “infinite retries”, see more here. Can you share use case please?