dazinism the only developer option i had adjusted, over a month ago, was to disable the loudness by app setting

freedom_warrior doubtful, its a brand new phone...and started within the same day as the latest update to my phone, which I think was Monday morning

Hardware failures usually hit when new. If hardware survives the first month or two, then its usually good for years.

    csis01 wiped and reinstalled and even restored same backup, with no further issue. So clearly software related. Thanks for confirming

    The issue is specific to your setup so it almost certainly has to do with how you configured the device such as using an accessibility service causing the issue, a certain developer option or some configuration done via ADB.