Laraval Pipeline then() closure returns null

Running into an issue where the pipeline is being executed fully (I have logged every step of the way), and even in the closure the $conversion object is logged perfectly. But then the pipeline still returns null. I have also tried thenReturn(); same result

    $conversionObj = [..];
    return app(Pipeline::class)
        -->send($conversionObj)
        ->through($this->pipes)
        ->then(function($conversion){
            Log::info($conversion);
            return $conversion;
        }
    );

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