just version: 1.21.0
This bug seems like a regressions, as in 1.16.0 the !include statement didn't work this way and my just files were executing fine.
Example
/tmp/justtest/justfile
/tmp/justtest/sub/justfile
import "../justfile"
default: upper
echo sub
pwd
$ cd /tmp/justtest/sub
$ just
upper
pwd
/tmp/justest
sub
pwd
/tmp/justest/sub