shroom I was following suggestions from this very forum.
It's unfortunate that someone advised users to permanently enable Developer options on a device not used for development. Even if it is not the cause of this specific issue, developer options in general increases the likelihood of future stability issues and data loss. See this thread for some examples.
Another question which arises is whether or not you have been using adb to make system changes, or if system apps have been disabled or permissions from them revoked. These are relevant questions because the issue you're describing is an unusual one – but can occur if you make these unsupported changes to the system.
Also, it's still not clear which specific app(s) you are referring to.
shroom This is clearly an issue with the operating system. My friend has also been trying GrapheneOS for the first time and has been experiencing similar issues, such as Teams and other apps not functioning in the background and completely missing work notifications.
If notifications are delayed, your friend can check if Play services have unrestricted background permission enabled as well as granted it unrestricted usage of mobile data.