I have quite strange situation.
I use:
@include('partials.meta')
If the file does not exists I got error, but if it exists no content from partial is added.
But if I only change filename from meta.blade.php to metatags.blade.php and change include into:
@include('partials.metatags')
the content of the partial is added.
Is somehow meta as name causing any conflict in Blade?
I just tried the same thing also, and it worked without any issue. Maybe in your meta.blade.php file you have @section('meta'), but that only works when you have a @yield('meta') which you want to populate with the meta.blade.php contents. However if you are using @include in the area you are going to use the contents, there is no need to use @section, so remove that and everything should be fine.