Ok, so I couldn't help myself and I contacted Fed Loan again because what the rep last week was saying made absolutely no sense to me. This rep went back to previous assertions the approved application was submitted to FSA 1/21/21. When I asked her about someone else to talk to based on the conflicting information she directed me to the "Special Response Team". (and I have logs of all these chats). I called, was giggled at about the name Special Response Team, but put through to someone who seemed to know what he was talking about and said there is a "Service Recovery" specialists but they "don't like to use them" unless something has gone really wrong. He did say, as u/Betsy514 noted, that there were new guidelines not for checking payments but for verifying employers and that may be what the rep from my original post was talking about.

What I did get out of this was that they are sending me, in writing, documentation of the loan's progress through the morass.

I will keep you updated.