Surprised they didn’t help with a fast track. Earlier this year I received my new passport but it was damaged (front cover wasn’t stuck to the pages.) I told them, had a named contact at one of their offices contact me and take ownership to resolve it- admittedly had to fill in a paper-form...
Surprised that you are surprised given this has been going on for so long.
But renewals are generally still fairly quick I think - make sure you use a photo service linked to the passport office as that helps.