Deleted EA account attached to Xbox account

So this has been an incredibly frustrating evening. I got the PC Game Pass, which is supposed to include access to EA Play.

When I attempt to download an EA game through it, it pops up with an error. Upon investigating, I learned my Xbox gamertag is already linked to an EA account. My gamertag is over a decade old, and while I don't recall ever having an EA account, it is possible I did at one point and it was long since forgotten.

So I got in a chat with EA support, and was informed my Xbox gamertag is linked to a DELETED EA account. Deleted.

The only way I can fix this is to restore that deleted account. They would not tell me the email associated with the deleted EA account. So I tried to do so with every email I've ever had that I still have access to, and nothing worked. My conclusion is that either it is associated with a very old email I had deleted/abandoned, OR it was associated with an email which I already created a new EA account for. Either way I have no way of restoring said deleted account in order to proceed.

So I am stuck and either have to create a completely new Xbox gamertag (which I will not. I paid for that gamertag many years ago. Obviously I am attached to it lol) or just forego playing any EA Play games on the Game Pass platform.

I find it ridiculous that EA has no way of unlinking accounts from platforms if they are deleted, and therefore obviously no longer in use, accounts. This entire thing has soured EA as a business for me. I am not the only customer who has run into this issue. Get this fixed, EA!