An update:
After 3 weeks of having 17C and being completely happy, I woke up to my phone saying "You must enter your password after your phone restarts."
My heart dropped... 12.2.6 update had been applied automatically overnight (for those unaware, I was holding back from the latest iOS after hearing Crabacle's situation of it breaking his USB connectivity)! I literally yelled out, "F**K you Apple!!" (luckily the wife was already out for a run or she'd have thought I was insane).
I was so frustrated, I decided to ride my bike to my meeting (beautiful out today for Feb here in NYC @ sunny & 56ºF / 13.3ºC) and blow off some steam. Well, I got back and decided to give the Velar a go. Start the car, play some Bluetooth audio before even trying USB just to give the car a run for its money since upon delivery that would always mean USB wouldn't show up in Source. 2 seconds later....BAM. Auto-switches to USB and plays, art and all. I'm shocked. I unplug it, source is gone and plug it back in. It's back. I try it another 8-10 times thinking it couldn't keep up. It did.
So incredibly happy that the update didn't break my TPD. Crabacle, I'm sorry for your circumstance, though I do hope that my experience is at least some hope for those of you that have 17C and are worried about the update. It's possible it's a hardware specific bug, as noted before there are different suppliers for the TPD units. It's also possible its software related, but regionally dependent. Either way, if you have 17C, I wouldn't yank your hair out if the update happens before trying it. Cheers to beta testing our wonderful Velars