I do know I have to connect the device, lol. In fact it was connected because I used the first command to reboot it. I don’t know what I did wrong the first time, but my second sideload attempt worked.
Internet, SELinux and Updater work again.
I’ve forgot to mention another problem with 20260716. The switch was broken. Shame I didn’t take note of that. IIRC the phone would see sliding the switch both up and down as moving it up. (Or was it down, I don’t remember).