I reported my issues as you suggest. Not really sure if Apple pays that much attention considering most of these issues have been going on for quite a long time and through several updates. FYI, if it helps anyone. I, too, have issues waking my external monitor while in clamshell mode. One thing I've done that has facilitated a work around is to open the lid on my M1 so that both monitors are active. Then go to system prefs - displays - click display settings on the bottom left. Make sure your external monitor is selected as "main".
This has allowed my external to wake while the M1 macbook is in clamshell with just a single click of the wireless trackpad or a key on the external keyboard. This is only a work around however as it works MOST of the time for me. Every once in a while, I have to open the lid of my M1 just enough to wake it's screen and then my external wakes as well and shows as my main monitor.
The only other very strange issue I have with waking my external monitor seems to be tied to the many time machine backup external drive issues I've seen many people on the forums having (myself included). My external backup drive rarely (but not never) shows the "disc ejected improperly" window. I also finally found an external backup drive that didn't randomly eject itself (an issue I had when I first set up time machine on a different bus powered drive). The issue now is that when my M1 has been idle for some time, backups still happen, though sometimes at greater intervals than 1 hour). But, my external drive is supposed to shut down completely after it backs up (i.e. the blue light on the drive turns off/goes completely dark). That doesn't always happen - sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't and it appears random at least as far as I can tell. When it does not turn off as it is supposed to. My first trackpad click to wake the machine and my external monitor actually only wake my backup drive which then immediately shuts down as it was supposed to do on its own. Once it DOES shut down, I can then click my trackpad or any key and wake my external monitor with one click. Phew!
I mean, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. Just looking at what I've typed makes me feel exhausted.
I've been on macs since OS6 and I've never had a buggier and literally weirder new machine than this. I'm sharing here in the hopes that even pieces of what I share helps someone else more easily work around their issues. This is how I found my work arounds, trying every little suggestion and piece of information I could find until I found some things that allow me to work with minimal restarting and down time.
It is disappointing and sad that this is what Apple has become. It's an expensive investment to be leaving users out on an island by themselves with only each other to try to find work arounds for a multitude of issues with apparently little to no help from Apple itself.
