Need help with terrible dispute situation

I ordered an item on Aliexpress on Feb 19th, but apparently the item wasn't in stock, and the seller created a label at the last minute to avoid the auto-cancellation system. Later on, I received a message from the seller saying they would send me a pre-sale card stating when the item would actually ship.

I then contacted support, asking what to do in this situation, given that the tracking info on the item was for a pre-sale card. Without my permission, the representative automatically created a dispute for me with the reason "Still in transit, past the delivery time." Aliexpress then responded to the dispute saying that I need to just wait for the item to arrive, and close the dispute if the item is expected.

The item arrived today, and as expected, it was a piece of paper saying they'd send it later. I recorded an unboxing video showing the sealed package and opening it to show the item. I uploaded the evidence to the dispute, but when I contacted support about it, they said that the reason for the dispute was wrong, and that I needed to close the dispute and reopen it with the correct reason. Reading all the things here, I'm being told not to close the dispute, but support is telling me to do so.

I refused to close the dispute, and the representative said they would escalate the issue stating the real reason is the item is not as described and requested pictures of the item and my email. I provided this, and after ~12 hours, I got an email saying that

"After checking, we found that the dispute is awaiting you to respond now. You may respond or upload evidence as AliExpress required. And AliExpress will come back to review your case again after the respond count-down time ends. Kindly wait patiently for it."

On the dispute, I don't see any response from Aliexpress, and the only thing I see is "Waiting for AliExpress's final solution. Your response is well received, and AliExpress will offer the final solution, usually in 2 days" AliExpress never gave me a solution though...I only see the option to upload more photos/videos, and I was never given any other option to choose a resolution etc.

Talking to different reps, I keep getting different information. Some say to cancel the dispute and reopen, some say my buyer protection is already expired because the delivery was delayed (why is that my fault??), and all of them are saying the dispute reason is wrong, but it's not even my fault that support created the dispute so early without my permission...One rep also said if there's no response from seller after 3-5 days, AliExpress will just refund me, but I smell BS.

What the heck do I do? Do I cancel the dispute? Do I just wait?