Firmware update issue, took many steps, still cant get to work

Seems like you could have or should have returned or backup the device before everything gone south. The OTA and smartctl log which are part of the debug_logs is the first place to look. It doesn’t take a ‘Linux guy’ to read the error logs. The second place to look is to file a case with WD support. The third place to look is to post the OTA log and smartctl log as this person did.