It appears the built-in SSH tunnelling cannot handle more than 1 connection at a time. With 1 session connected, any further attempts fail. Closing the first connection allows one to succeed in its place. This bug exists in at least 20.08.3, 20.12.3, and 21.08.1.
A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/network/krdc/-/merge_requests/24
Git commit 8111867c479f54138fcd80974cd76b40ec024c64 by Luke Dashjr. Committed on 13/09/2021 at 18:17. Pushed by aacid into branch 'master'. VncView: Use an ephemeral port for SSH forwarding M +6 -7 vnc/vncview.cpp https://invent.kde.org/network/krdc/commit/8111867c479f54138fcd80974cd76b40ec024c64