Xiaohongshu (RED / rednote) holds your phone number hostage if you get banned. The most infuriating UX ever.

Just need to vent about how incredibly draconian and rogue Xiaohongshu’s (RED) account system is.
So, my account got restricted a while back while I was in Japan. I originally got a notification that seemed like a perma-ban, but a recent pop-up graciously informed me that the restriction will actually be lifted on exactly Jan 27, 2027 (so, a 365-day ban). Fine. I don't even care about the account anymore, I just want to delete it so I can free up my phone number and real-name ID to start fresh.
Here is where the absolute gaslighting begins.
The app actively lets you go through the entire account deletion process. I read through their giant wall of text warning me that "all data will be lost forever" and "assets will be wiped." I checked the "I understand" box. I went to the final page, selected "Account banned / Disagree with penalty decision" as my reason, and confidently hit the final "Confirm" button.
And what happens?
A tiny, generic black toast message pops up saying: "No account cancellation requests found for this user."
No explanation. No "You can't do this right now." Just a broken system error basically telling me to screw off.
It turns out, this isn't a bug; it's a feature. Their backend is strictly hardcoded to reject any deletion requests if your account is in a "penalty period." They literally hold your personal info and phone number hostage for an entire year to prevent you from making a new account, but their frontend still strings you along through the whole deletion process just to slap you in the face at the very end.
It’s textbook asshole design. You can't use the app, you can't delete your data, and your phone number is locked in their database jail until 2027.
Has anyone else dealt with this hostage situation? Is there any actual way to force them to delete my data and release my number before 2027, or do I literally just have to wait a year?
TL;DR: Got a 1-year ban on Xiaohongshu. Tried to delete the account to free up my phone number. The app lets you do the entire 5-step deletion process only to give you a fake error message at the very end. They hold your phone number hostage until the ban is over.