Tried for 2 days to reach L2 officer. Each time L1 connected me to L2 after which I was given a wait time of few hours. Unfortunately, both times I never got a call back from USCIS. Called 3rd time and the operator told me USCIS is under heavy coll volume and simply created another useless SR for me. Really wanted to talk to L2 before creating the SR. Now there is nothing much to do but wait for another lame copy paste SR reply.
Seems like USCIS is under firefighting mode, given recent political developments. Any one of us, with RD in May and before is pretty much stuck in Extended Background review and should now prepare to wait for 12 months to complete since RD.
Quite a depressing realization, but this is what it is.