MacBook Pro 2016 (TouchBar, T1) internal display dead after Monterey 12.2.1 update

Update from 12.1 -> 12.2.1. Began installing with a CalDigit lightning hub connected, laptop in clamshell mode. Screen went blank, so I opened the laptop and unplugged from the dock. Screen was still blank, so after a period of time, I powered off and back on.

From this point forward, internal LCD screen is completely dead. The screen is completely black with no faint image (so not the backlight issue). Everything seems to work fine with an external display, including the TouchBar.

Tried PRAM reset, SMC reset to no avail. Apple store tried reseating the LCD connector with no change in behavior.

Apple store says this is likely a bad display. Seems highly unlikely to me that my display worked perfectly fine and randomly failed the second I installed 12.2 update. They offered an $800 flat rate repair in case logic board ended up being bad as well. Not worth it for a 2016 laptop.

My instinct is that this is a firmware issue. But T1 chip doesn't have a "Revive" option like T2.

Anyone experience anything like this? Next steps? Apple store offered some sort of restore, but I assume this doesn't actually touch the T1 chip and is just a OS X reinstall? (Genius Bar technician didn't seem to know exactly what it would do).

Other oddity: can not get apple diagnostics to load at all. Not sure if it just refuses to load on an external monitor in modern times or if that is a sign of something else.