Steps to reproduce:
1. Open attached project "rqa-project-nightwalker.zip" and scene "AuraDemo"
2. In Project window, open Assets/Effects/EnergyAura/EnergyAura.vfx
3. In VFX Graph window, select the Initialize Particle -> Set Position (Skinned Mesh) -> Skinned Mesh property and open its object picker
4. In Skinned Mesh object picker, select the "Armature_Mesh" GameObject
5. Observe Console window
Expected result: No errors, the Skinned Mesh Renderer is assigned
Actual result: "Cannot cast from UnityEngine.Object to UnityEngine.SkinnedMeshRenderer" error, the Skinned MeshRenderer is not assigned
Reproducible with: 12.1.11 (2021.3.24f1), 14.0.7 (2022.2.18f1), 15.0.5 (2023.1.0b15), 16.0.1 (2023.2.0a13)
Could not test with: 10.10.1 (2020.3.48f1) (Skinned Mesh position node is unavailable)
Notes:
1. The issue also reproduces when dragging the Skinned Mesh Renderer component into the graph's field directly
2. In 2022.2, the error is "InvalidCastException: Specified cast is not valid." and only reproduces by dragging the component directly. Choosing it in the Object Picker produces no results.
3. In 2021.3, you cannot even assign the Skinned Mesh Renderer with either method