The Solution
Fix it by making the parameter optional, for example:
class_name A
var v = null
func _init(v_ = null):
v = v_
With that there is no error. I get this output:
var2str(a): Object(Reference,"script":Resource( "res://A.gd"),"v":"aaa")
var2str(b): Object(Reference,"script":Resource( "res://B.gd"),"v":"bbb")
var2str(str2var(var2str(a))): Object(Reference,"script":Resource( "res://A.gd"),"v":"aaa")
var2str(str2var(var2str(b))): Object(Reference,"script":Resource( "res://B.gd"),"v":"bbb")
The problem
For abstract, str2var will not pass any arguments to _init. It would not know what to pass anyway.
The rest of the answer is the process of confirming that str2var will result in calling _init with no argument.
When I try your code I get this error:
E 0:00:00.630 _create_instance: Condition "r_error.error != Variant::CallError::CALL_OK" is true. Returned: __null
<C++ Source> modules/gdscript/gdscript.cpp:121 @ _create_instance()
<Stack Trace> main.gd:12 @ _ready()
We can find the line that throws the error in _create_instance by looking at the source.
Sadly that does not give me much information. So, I decided to search how str2var is implemented.
We find it inside GDScriptFunctions::call, here. Which calls VariantParser::parse, which calls VariantParser::parse_value. We are interested in the case of an "Object" (here). And that results in a call to ClassDB::instance(type). There type will be "Reference", and then it procedes to set all properties as they come. Being the first one "script":Resource("res://A.gd").
When we set the script (here), it will result in a call to GDScript::instance_create. Which calls GDScript::_create_instance (here):
return _create_instance(NULL, 0, p_this, Object::cast_to<Reference>(p_this) != NULL, unchecked_error)
With no argument for _init (The NULL is the argument array, and 0 is the number of arguments). This is the signature for GDScript::_create_instance:
GDScriptInstance *GDScript::_create_instance(const Variant **p_args, int p_argcount, Object *p_owner, bool p_isref, Variant::CallError &r_error)
Of course, initializer->call(instance, p_args, p_argcount, r_error); fails, because _init requires an argument. And we find the line that throws the error further down. Note: initializer is created while parsing the script.