Picked it up. Yet to spend any time on it but the seller, who was a great guy,
I didn't trust our AI overlords enough to risk it. Even with my ignorance about these things it seemed fishy, but thank you for explaining"the why" part of the problem with this.
And I officially picked it up. Had some time to take it for a very brief test drive before purchase but have not yet put it through its paces at home (manual says I can use headphone jack without speaker load). Early impressions are that you are all correct, this thing is niiiice

It's something I can grow into. I could easily could get by on a much lesser product, but man am I happy with the sound this thing produces. Tested out through a MarkBass cab, I was quite impressed.
Seller brought up that it actually does have some scratchy pots and voluntarily took a little off the price. That move may have effectively subsidized the cost of sending off for repairs; I'll have to see if it bothers me enough after more usage, it didn't seem terribly egregious.
Time to begin the used cab search. Turns out it was purchased as a combo but unfortunately he sold off the cab separately... bummer. I'll probably look around for comparable options, something in the 1x12 or 1x15 would suit me just fine. Exciting times!