After many hours searching threads for information about my HU and issues I was having, I find myself here with those issues resolved and wanting to thank
@TorstenH @hackras and of course the community in general for the efforts to make these capable but buggy devices more capable and understandable. With all the searching, I didn't see many other users with my exact MCU nor these specific issues so I also feel compelled to share the experience before and after updating to v44. The device is working better than ever, and too often there is no update on successes. I also found myself wanting more information about MCU versions, CPU, etc so I'm posting as much as I can in case it helps others.
The HU worked "okay" for the first 8 months but then started getting stuck in some kind of boot loop for the first 5-15 minutes. When you started the car, it would load the boot logo, then start flashing a washed out white screen for some variable time then eventually start working. The reverse camera would not even work during this time so as I carried on the journey of searching this forum for answers, I even started looking into MCU firmware. In the end, I didn't do anything for the MCU, just updated to v44.
The Aliexpress seller was somewhat responsive when I asked them for support but not actually helpful. Their ultimate answer was that the motherboard must be bad and to buy another radio, then file a "free" return on that new one, swapping the bad one then it would be "free" for me. No thanks. They were non-responsive when I asked for firmware. Also, this seller's firmware seemed to do something to prevent apps like CPU Z, and Device Info HW from working. AIDA64 would work, but almost any other app that is used to detect fake OS or hardware would simply crash when you ran them. The apps that did work showed that hardware matched what I expected and of course the usual Android 9 faked as 11 which is mostly to be expected.
I am happy to report that v44 has resolved both of these issues and saved me the headache of this crappy seller "LPYFRG Store". The device itself works well, and it came with all the accessories I needed including everything to use my OEM camera but the firmware was complete garbage. I understand that comes mostly from the factory but I know the seller puts their "touch" on it and not giving updated firmware ensures that it stays in piss poor condition. My device is again functional, in fact better than original.
I'm attaching system details before and after. Yes, the firmware does show as Android 12 after but it's still 9. What is even trickier is that CPU-Z actually shows version 12, API version 31 but when you use Device Info HW you can see that it is clearly still version 9, API 28. I am more than suspicious of the seller's firmware even thinking that this "flashing boot loop" could be intentional but either way, I'm thankful for the community to take matters into our own hands. Again, thank you
@TorstenH @hackras I followed your breadcrumbs to success.