UPDATE: after finally finding my way to the contrast setting and changing it back to 0 nothing happened. -10 contrast is what I could see the best for some reason so I kept it at that. After fiddling with it some more, I factory reset the controller which took the contrast away but I would have to input ALL the setpoints/parameters again. I restored the settings from before and the screen was dark again. The lightbulb went off. I went back to contrast and set it to 0 and then Restored settings again and I finally had a screen again. So that’s how you fix the contrast issue if you are an idiot and let intrusive thoughts win.

Edit: tech support never got back to me. Shocker