I commented out those entries in /etc/auto.master before modifying the fstab entry:
UUID=259ec5ea-e8a4-465a-9263-1c06217b9aaf /mnt/backup ext4,x-systemd.automount,x-systemd.idle-timeout=15min noauto 0 2
That's not correct. See 'man fstab'. It should be
device mount-point filesystem-type options dump fsck
So you should have:
UUID=259ec5ea-e8a4-465a-9263-1c06217b9aaf /mnt/backup ext4 x-systemd.automount,x-systemd.idle-timeout=15min,noauto 0 2
which is exactly as it was before except for the x-systemd entries as you described.
Yeah, you put them in the wrong place.
P.