Liberty Neo buds - Microphone - no hands free audio in Windows 10 using built-in Intel Bluetooth

I bought a new laptop last week and was surprised when my Liberty Neo microphone refused to pick up any audio and the hands-free audio output (“headset”) is silent. Normal music output (“headphones”) works fine. I tried all the usual suspects (bluetooth driver reinstall/update; unpair/repair; control panel devices Neo properties services uncheck/recheck various services; control panel sound set default/disable Windows audio enhancements; etc. etc.) with no luck. Other buds work fine on this computer, and my Neos work fine on all other my other devices including two other Windows 10 PCs, one with an older Intel chipset and one with an Asus BT-400 USB adapter. Of note: if I disable the built-in Bluetooth and use my USB adapter instead, there is no issue.

I talked to Soundcore Support and they wanted screenshots showing the failed Microphone test to send to engineering, but I thought I’d post here to a wider audience as well. It seems to be some kind of incompatibility, hopefully fixable with software updates from Microsoft or Intel since the Neo’s don’ t have any way that I know of to update.

Buds: A3911
Problem System: Acer Swift 5 SF514T-54T, BIOS 1.16 running Windows 10 v20H2
Intel Wireless Bluetooth Firmware HCI 10.256 / LMP 10.256
Driver: 22.10.0.2 dated 10/28/2020 from Intel