Gradients lost when merging layers or clipping to the layer below.

Hi there,

I am working in Photoshop veriosn 23.3.2 on an iMac running Big Surr version 11.6.4.

I've been working with grandient maps on text and revealing parts of the gradient using tilt-shift blur.

I would like to create mutliple layers for different letters to have greater control over the end results.

However, I am running into some issues using the gradient maps. 

For example, if I try cliping the gradient map to the text layer, I can't see the effects and nothing really happens. Similarly, if I try and merge the gradient layer and the text layer the gradient disappears. I would like to merge the layers but keep the transparent background so I can layer different versions.

Is this possible? I have seen YouTube clips of users clipping the gradient to the layer below or else merging the layers and it seems to work fine. Would it be something in my settings?

Thanks!