In #1 when you say the monitor displays the DE, is the Dock visible? If not, it could be that you're trying to interact with the DE but the dock and application launcher is on the laptop display.
I didn't have to change any config values and it works. The only other thing I can think of is that I have Gnome Tweaks installed and the 'Suspend when laptop lid is closed' is disabled in the 'General' tab.
Another thing to try is to see what Pop!_OS outputs in the /var/log/syslog file when this happens. What I would suggest you do is:
- open the terminal app
- type
sudo /var/log/syslog -f(this will start writing all sorts of messages to the screen) - do your step #1 (when it becomes unresponsive)
- open the lid again so the system becomes reponsive
- press Ctrl + c to stop outputting the contents of the systog file.
Scroll up and see if there's any error, warning or something to that affect in the log related to power management, displays or the desktop environment.
And one more thing which is probably obvious: make sure your system is up do date (both the operating system and the BIOS).
I completely agree, I guess what they call "privacy win" is that this feature can now work without storing data on Google (highlighted by me):
When they say
they sound like the companies trying to sell you these features without mentioning the privacy implications of said features. :/