First of all, thanks everyone for answering. I’ll summarise what I think about it all below, mostly in case it would be helpful for the game devs:
a) I’m a reasonably new player (playing for about 2 months with one cold reset after the very first attempt). I did not realise that the character quest would last for so long, and thought that all Chewie-related tasks will expire once it moves onto Ventress or whoever the next character would be. So, I’ve “panicked” thinking that because of this single incomplete task all effort spent to do the rest of them will be in lost in vain.
b) As it worked for other tasks very well, I thought a solution outside era-specific battles: grinded all the way to Journey Path Chewbacca and Commander Luke, tried chewie & threepio, borrowed commander Luke etc., because I’ve read a few (apparently misguiding) advice I’ve googled/ geminied for. Obviously, it didn’t work. So, I’ve lost quite a lot of time and also 500 crystals on additional (useless) colosseum battles, and was told these are not refundable by support.
c) So, after all it is not a bug, but rather an incomplete man page (wish I could just do “man distraction” in a shell) It is rather counterintuitive, and not really hinted at anywhere, as I’ve only found the right answer after posting on this forum (wish I would’ve done it earlier). Also, I had quite a few silly suggestions from support to relogin and reboot iPad that made me smile.
d) Overall, I hate RPG-likes where you have to leave the game to google/genai or ask at forums how to pass some quest, as otherwise you are stuck no matter what you do (do you hear me, Owlcats?) I thought I found one with a familiar lore where I can just play along and have fun… until this **bleep** distraction bit, so a spoiler. I guess I’m not alone.
As for my chewyoda, he’s at level 42 now, and I’ve only spent 1200 crystals once, so I should be fine grinding to 45 and completing the task once done. Merry Christmas everyone!