"Apple passcode after restarting" message is not allowing access to the phone with the correct password/pin.

I have taken my phone (Iphone13) to the apple store to have the speaker reviewed, the assistant assured me with the reset of the password and network settings, my photos would be safe (the photos were the only thing not backed up on the iCloud due to privacy with work). After walking out of the store the phone screen locked, and that was that, I could not access my phone from this point forward. I have a message asking for the "apple passcode after restarting", which does not match my apple ID password, apple pin or any other I have in the memory banks. I have called apple care twice and contacted the data recovery companies apple referred me to and have another appointment with apple in the morning. I am assuming all is lost at this stage, form what I am reading it is because the reset was incomplete and I was not instructed to redo the apple ID before the phone locked making iCloud inaccessible on the phone to add the photos to backup. Anyone have any other suggestions before I have to resort to the hard rest. Note: the phone is not disabled as I stoped prior. it does however give me an hour lock out each time the phone power down, which is strange. I am not happy with Apple Techs at present.

Data recovery said it would be 5 years before the photos can be retrieved if ever with that version of iPhone as the screen is passcode locked, the two companies referred me back to apple as it appears its a glitch in their system.

Any help would be appreciated that does not require a hard rest at this stage.

PS. It was a 4 digit numeric pin that is changed itself to what appears to be a alphanumeric password of some sort.

Putting some more information into this, would my sons account who is accessing my apple ID be causing this issue or could it possibly be his passcode I am needing to use after the reset? has anyone else had this issue? I have both kids on the apple ID and never has this issues before. Ill have him change his in the morning to match mine.

My last attempt was an hour lock out - any idea how many more attempts before I stuff it up completely ?