Actually, the problem has gotten a lot WORSE.
The worsening came about because, all of sudden after iOS 16.0.2 and Watch OS 9.0, my watch would not unlock my Mac. No matter what I did. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo after 3 or 4, maybe 5 hours with Apple Support one day, when they told me to reinstall MAC OS on my Mac, which I did, the watch would still not unlock the Mac. So, I went back to support the next morning, coincidentally getting the same "Elevated" Support fellow I had the day before, and after 3-4 hours with him again, including enabling a "Test ID" on my Mac (not the problem), I was told to turn off all bluetooth on my Mac (except the keyboard and mouse obviously) and remove all bluetooth devices from the Mac, except the mouse and keyboard, and iPhone, completely log out of iCloud on my iPhone, my Mac, and therefore my Apple Watch, which of course removed all sorts of settings. When I logged back in to iCloud on my iPhone and Mac, voila, the watch now unlocks the Mac. ... ... ... ... ... ... THE PROBLEM IS, HOWEVER, that now, my AW7 runs out of battery in two to three hours, it gets so hot while charging that the cellular signal is disconnected until it cools down, sometimes when I put it on the charger the battery % actually decreases down to almost nothing unless I turn on "Low Power Mode". ... ... ... ... ... ... Basically, the AW7 is, now, worth less except to unlock my Mac.