I have modified a ‘BUG’ work item template to include an initial state of ‘Proposed’ rather than ‘Active’. The initial transition used on item creation has two unwanted Field Rules: Activated By’ and ‘Activated Date’. I’ve tried unsccessfully to remove them and save the workflow, but they continue to regenerate. Has anyone encountered this behavior before?
I’ve exhausted MSDN and other forums tyring to find an answer, so I thought it was time to turn to the Stack community for some advice.

You can either use the Process Editor in the power tools to remove those or you can use the witadmin command line utility to achieve this.
You cannot use this designer canvas to modify the rules for a work item type.