Follow up- I ordered a "new" screen from an Ebay reseller, macMise, for $200 USD. it arrived very well packaged, installed fine, and, voila, the image issue is fixed, and the image looks great. 2 problems, that others have documented- the camera doesn't work and the display is no longer "True Tone", which is the tech that new macs use to adjust the screen brightness and color for ambient lighting conditions. also the screen doesn't quite fit as well as the original. these screens are probably some form of seconds, or refurbs, or something, or maybe from an older model. The screen had stickers in on it from QC showing it passed the LCD, camera, and light sensor test FWIW. when I emailed the seller, they suggested doing a PRAM/SMC reset, which M1 Macs no longer support. They did offer to refund my money, but then I'm starting over, etc, and might just get another one. And regarding the True Tone, they said that you need to swap out the video chip on the mother board to get that to work, because they are paired at the factory- I'm skeptical of that explanation as well, but for $200, its probably the cheapest option, at least compared to sending it in to apple which is probably more like $500. I had no luck finding an actual, new replacement screen form a reputable parts seller. so the moral of the story, keep your laptop dry!