Maybe they made some more? If you watch someone make orbs, then die, the orbs are gone. They can make new orbs. Any orbs you've made prior are still visible to the teammates they've spawned for, assuming they never died. I only noticed it for the first time like last week but it's definitely the case

Idk I died then went back to B spawn on firebase Delphi and there must have been 15 orbs there. Wouldn't surprise me if I was wrong but I'm going to have to go try it when I get home. I know for a 100% fact that heavy dropped by a killed enemy player will persist after death so I don't know why orbs wouldn't also?

I know that as well, I can only assume they are in two seperate parts of the coding. I think the orbs are meant to be more like kill streak rewards, though more team based. The longer you stay alive and the better everyone plays, the more orbs there will be. If you die, it resets. I noticed it cause I saw a teammate generate orbs, moved past it, then in a clutch moment in the same area later in that map I noticed my super was close, and I remembered those orbs! I ran out of cover to grab them expecting to hit my foes with some space magic! But the orbs weren't there... I suppose it's possible I picked them up without noticing, but it makes the most sense to me they would dissapear. Otherwise every match would surely have a bunch of orbs just chillin, but you hardly ever see them in crucible.