No, the 4-hour timeout is a different behaviour (and intended, it seems). That is, the Smart Lock feature disabling itself after 4 hours of inactivity. I think it takes longer than that.
On the other hand, the bug seems to cause the NFC radio to stop polling for tags after locking. So even though Smart Lock is enabled, it can't read them.
I've had the bug multiple times in less than an hour so it is definitely not the same as the stated timeout.
In any case, the Xposed module does nothing about the timeout. I still have to draw the pattern once every morning. But not during the day after that. Sometimes, it takes a bit longer to read the ring and the screen turns off before unlocking, but then it usually reads right away after turning on again, so it works for me. YMMV.