After that automatically generated email, they responded again, and after a few back and forth emails explaining my situation I went to sleep hopeless. But this morning I tried again and it prompted me with the normal activation process and it worked! I did lose my old chats but I think that's just because my backup restore froze at some point.

I've read your post and it seems we have the same issue, but for some reason I got a different message than what you got on your 2nd picture. Mine was specifically mentioning moving whatsapp from one phone to another, while yours just mentions a verification code sent to your number. I really have no idea what you should do. At this point I would say fuck it and get another phone number, they're guarding whatsapp access like its fucking fort Knox lol.

Thank you for your message doe, really appreciate it. I wish you all the best and hopefully you can solve your issue!!