If you’ve actually confirmed this with your own testing as I outlined above, then wiring the two white wires together, connecting the top red wire to TRANS and installing the Chime Controller with the standard wiring configuration should give the desired results. If you have not actually confirmed this yourself and are basing your answer on how the chime box was wired before you started, then it’s possible that the chime box was wired incorrectly and that the red wires were not attached to the correct terminals, which doesn’t really matter if you’re using a “dumb” doorbell button but makes a difference when you want to add a doorbell camera and Wyze Chime Controller to the circuit. If that’s the case, then you may want to try the bottom red wire on TRANS and then connect the Chime Controller in the usual fashion.
I believe it’s best to do your own testing and confirm what’s actually going on with your particular system, though, rather than making assumptions. That’s what I’m trying to eliminate here.
I’m not. I have never stated that, and I don’t think Wyze has, either. In fact, their published specs for Duo Cam Doorbell say that it takes 10-24 V AC (they list 16-24 V AC for other doorbell models).
I think you misread or misunderstood. In the third bullet point you quoted, I was suggesting to reset everything back to the way it was before you started your project with Chime Controller not present at all. This would be like putting everything back to a known baseline where everything was wired as it was originally so that you can confirm at the location where you want to place the doorbell camera itself that it’s receiving the required voltage to power the device. If everything—including a “dumb” doorbell button—is working as expected at that point (i.e., actuating the chime without extraneous noise), then that’s the starting point, though it’s still possible that the red wires could be on the wrong terminals in the chime box, and that’s why I’d want to test everything myself.