Component footprints not visible on imported Gerbers (cannot export)

This is the expected / normal behavior. Objects like footprints and holes do not exist in gerber files (The holes are in a separate drill file). Because of this, all the pads of footprints will also just be separate copper elements. It also depends on the the software that created the gerber files. With some old software it was common to “paint” areas and pads by drawing a lot of overlapping track segments.

There is some more info in the topic below.