Update on March 14, 2023.
Received another response from Wyze support team. It said since Wyze is selling a different firmware version than Walmart, Rodrigo (Wyze support) said there’s no estimate on when the new units will arrive. It makes me wonder if Walmart units have newer hardware then Wyze’s stock units?!
On the hardware end, since the machine was bricked, I decided to do some experiment. Out of pure luck, I was able to restart the machine and got the buttons to respond to reset. I removed the vacuum from the charger for a few minutes. Then I held both buttons down for 10 seconds. Then the blinking white lights stopped blinking. And put it back on the charger. and I was able to reset the vacuum. Once it was reconnected to the app after the full reset, the vacuum actually updated to 1.6.199, same experience as @jepabst . Then it immediately asked me to update to 1.6.202. That update went smoothly, and the vacuum supports spot cleaning & multi-floor.
I hope that helps if you are experiencing the same issue. As for the Wyze support team…you can be the judge yourself here.