Going to keep it short, theme approval is not getting better any time soon as shown by the recent years it’s just an endless cycle of bug reporting.
The way testing works is that 195 devices get tested (theoretically), 1 device has bugs and then the whole theme gets rejected. This doesn’t really seem convenient for anyone, the designers (especially indie designers who focus on quality instead of quantity), customers or Samsung themselves.
My suggestion would be:
If 195 devices get tested and only one device gets rejected why not publish the theme for 194 devices and automatically remove that one device from the device list?
(Obviously that 1 device can then be added at a later time)
I really doubt they test on every device. Would be nice to know their process, but I bet they test on one device, and only one device! There is no way they are testing on every device, it would take months.
This is why we get Fold rejections - if the Fold is selected they only test on the Fold. Unselect the Fold and they test on a S22 or S21.
In the past six months, I have only ever had rejections on the Fold, Flip (when they introduced the cover screen), the S22 and S21. If they theme works on the flagships, they will probably work on most phones.
Having said that, I keep opening tickets pointing out where themes work perfectly on the S22 Ultra but get rejected on the Fold… they said that it’s fine that the devices are inconsistent.
The answer I got about Android apps (not Themes) was they are not a test lab. It is not their duty to test on every device listed and remove those that don’t work, they expect them to be tested before submission.
@Redacted
While I doubt they test on all devices, I’m pretty sure they test on more than one. Since Flip is now the Flagship mobile (replacing Note) They will always test on that first unless the seller removes it from the list.