Apple Watch cellular won't activate on EPP plan?

I switched from Rogers and have used the Apple Watch on their network, Freedom's and Bell's with no issues over the last 7 years. Telus tech support reps keep saying my watch must be locked to a carrier and that I need to reset my watch back to factory settings (which makes no sense - the two are unrelated). Searched google and read up on this forum and seen reports of others having issues with Apple Watch cellular plans not activating with EPP plans and that they had to submit tickets with tech support to the agents on the back end to provision the account properly in order to fix. I called in and had an agent submit a ticket and am waiting to hear back. How has Telus still not fixed this documented issue multiple years later? Definitely not a great impression for a new customer.