I have done a stepped-release version of a watch face using all the usual generic/everyday elements which was getting passed without issue up until I tried to release a version in 1.6.10 which got rejected. I don’t know if you have read my other post about it but it goes into more detail of each release. here: Google Play is seriously sapping my will to continue with this
I have run my apk’s on my device and others with no issues at all in addition to my testers, and in some cases, hundreds of users who have downloaded my faces with no issues/complaints to speak of. It’s truly confounding.