Welcome to the Future where everyone can see you at all times and you will not able to do much with it. (unless you live in an underground cave like Batman)
Have you tried any previous builds. Sometimes new updates comes with software bugs. It has happened to me many times and I end up installing old builds until it gets fixed.
Main reason why I still use Silence app. Even though it hasn't been updated in years, it has the option for muting notifications for each person. From 1, 2 hours, 1 day, 7 days or even a year. If anyone is interested here's the F-Droid link to it https://f-droid.org/packages/org.smssecure.smssecure/
Thanks OP for this great informative video. I really appreciate it a lot. It is time to start buying products without PFAS