I had a feeling something was wrong early on because the dietpi user refuses to login physically at the device or via ssh from the start… even with root ssh login enabled I wasn’t able to login as any personal or even the dietPi User…
As you suggested I have tried rebooting multiple times through a safe shutdown or reboot command this sadly hasn’t helped…
I do have physical access to the Pi4 thus I have confirmed that the DropBear Service was running via a “systemctl status” command…
Any help is greatly appreciated thank you!