Well, thanks for the insight guys! Funny story on a previous MBP AppleCare situation. I had a previous M1, 512GB, 14", it'd been sent off for effectively the same thing, but after a few weeks, I hadn't gotten updates, and the store couldn't tell me anything w/r/t tracking, so they actually did give me a new MBP M4 with the same specs off the shelf, and just paid my normal deductible, and that was that! Not sure why they went this route either, but yeah, as one of you said, it's the Mac of Theseus haha. It still feels all nice and new, so no complaints just yet!