Ignoring of surface seems to work correctly but you need to ignore it before you create it.
And currently surface creation event is coming before your ignore surface call:
29.590 Script @__rso-mod__/control.lua:2003: Creating surface nauvis-factory-floor
29.590 Script @__rso-mod__/control.lua:2004: nil
29.594 Script @__rso-mod__/control.lua:1061: Starting area spawn for nauvis-factory-floor
29.709 Script @__rso-mod__/control.lua:2126: Ignoring surface nauvis-factory-floor
29.710 Script @__rso-mod__/control.lua:2126: Ignoring surface nauvis-factory-floor
30.989 Script @__rso-mod__/control.lua:2003: Creating surface factory-travel-surface
30.990 Script @__rso-mod__/control.lua:2004: {
["nauvis-factory-floor"] = true
}
And also factory travel surface is not ignored which will also trigger starting area generation on it.