[BF6] All progress lost on account

I booted BF6 from Steam today. It came up with a login screen for me to reconnect my Steam account. I went ahead and linked my account without hesitating (why would you). Once I'd logged in, my heart dropped as I saw my level was now Level 1 and I had no unlocks.

I reached out to the EA support and they said that it was because I'd relinked my account (which I had no option but to do) and that there was no way to get my progress back.

This has extremely put me off wanting to play knowing there's a fairly big risk it could just happen again.

Anyone experienced the same?