How can I fix Camera bug on my iPhone 13 Pro Max with iOS 18.2?

I'm aware a lot has been said about the infamous camera bug on iOS 18 regarding the 13PM that apple vehemently refused existed and that messed up most of our 13PM's cameras for months, but after iOS 18.2, and most cameras being fixed (only 0.5 remains non existent in my case) I thought FINALLY there would be a light at the end of the tunnel...or so I thought.

After installing the 18.2 beta thursday last week, I was able to regain use of regular and zoomed camera. 0.5 remains non-recognized by the phone, but alas, I could live with that because the others functioning properly and not intermittently in my head meant we were closer to a solution to an issue Apple refused to acknowledge on the first place. But then, the official iOS 18.2 dropped a few nights ago (or so I think, as I got the notification that it would be installed "later tonight", and I already had the Beta running so I'm guessing the official one had come out, and all was going "well" (or the same as with the beta) until today at noon I lost complete functionality of my 13PM with regards to internet connectivity. Yesterday I started noticing that the phone randomly disconnected from my car via Bluetooth, but my apple watch and airpods remained connected so I didn't think much about it. But today at noon, my phone displays network signal from my carrier (LTE and 5G, so it's reading the right networks depending on location)...only that no internet actually works on my phone. Moreover, wifi displays as connected, but no connection sign is displayed on the phone upper bar, so no signal actually comes through the phone. That means that I have absolutely no use for my phone except for making calls or taking non-wide angle pictures (the irony that i can now take some pictures), as nothing else that requires an internet connection will work (which is pretty much everything on a smartphone). I recently tested the google authenticator app because I needed to log in to an official .gov account and that THANKFULLY worked, but I believe authenticator uses a different technology separate from internet, altho don't ask me what because I don't fully understand.

I tried force reset on RAM twice (vol up, vol down, force turn off screen and then long pressing the home button on the assisted touch dot until I was prompted to the access code screen), turning off the phone twice leaving it off for a long time and then turning it back on...nothing has worked so far. I'm pretty scared of simply doing a master wipe of the phone to reinstal iOS from scratch and start anew, specially now that I can't really do a final updated backup of the phone (because no true full backup is really a full backup and in my experience a bunch of stuff are lost in the process), but because I CANNOT lose access to my google authenticator app, as that would cause major issues for me with several high-sensitivity accounts. I created a backup QR code in order to re-scan if it came to full wipe, but I have no way to get it out of my phone as I can't connect to internet at all to send it out. Tried installing authenticator ext in chrome to try to log in to my account, but haven't been able to, apparently they work separately. All in all, this is pure madness...

Anyone can shed some light on other non-factory reset options I could try or any alternatives to try to force my phone into going out of its lull? Have most of us 13PM users really been condemned to unacknowledged malfunctions on our phones post iOS 18?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]