I think it’s dependent on the app. Lots of third party apps don’t seem to correctly implement listening for the theme change. In Chrome, for example, I always have the Dev Tools open in a separate window, and the theme seems to change while my Mac is awake, but if the theme is supposed to change while my Mac is asleep, it won’t ever change even after waking the machine up.
Do you mean that your system theme (e.g. the UI of system apps like Finder) doesn’t switch between light and dark based on the time of day? I haven’t encountered that problem, I’ve only seen third-party apps not keep their theme in sync with the system theme.