Issue was opened on TestNG side, but this is a Spring specific issue (2019). https://github.com/testng-team/testng/issues/2191
spring-test/src/main/java/org/springframework/test/context/testng/AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests.java
Only provides @BeforeClass TestNG support.
I believe this would be better suited as a @BeforeSuite, so that Spring Context can load and initialize for setup that should happen before the entire test suite is running, rather than only once a test class is actually initialized.
I believe setting up the context in @BeforeSuite would provide all of the benefits that are gained from the @BeforeClass