updates have killed my selfie camera

I have the 9th gen ipad (model No MK473X/A )with IOS 15.6.1

This unit does not come with a flash

At some point in the recent update cycle the selfie camera has been disabled. A number of people have posted this problem.

The onscreen notification either refers to the Flash being disabled as the ipad needs to cool down or something similar.

I repeat "THERE IS NO FLASH" on this model.

Apple support keeps referring people to the assistance for either iPhone or ipad with flash. This is not an option.

I have this far:

rebooted,

removed the sim, waited then reinstalled

changed the "low power setting on the battery twice

gone through every available installed app on the device and turned off the camera on that app.

looked for a setting in accessibility that does not exist for this model.

I have looked at as many forums as I can find, many of which keep coming back to trying to fix a device that has a flash

Apple, this is clearly a bug in the IOS based on an assumption that all your portable devices capable of updating to IOS 15 have flash capability.

any other suggestions?