samsung does bullshit where the parts have serial codes paired to the phone or whatever and you need to match it using their proprietary software for it to function. apple does it too.
I bought a Samsung as well. We should both learn from our mistakes, and never do that again - this is simply the cost of doing business with them. Maybe Fairphone would be good?
Sadly I know very little there. I know I HATE my current Samsung (mostly due to the company practices like you mentioned), and I also felt incredibly betrayed by my OnePlus 7T before that (the device itself was amazing, until an update broke it and now it literally hurts my hand, like I wonder if it's giving me cancer by radiating something through the shielding that it burned through), and before that I absolutely adored my Nexus 5 (but Pixels are a whole other thing entirely - far too much camera and too little actual phone for my tastes). The entire smartphone world is incredibly predatory. I mostly figure that the next one I get will be a cheap phone, maybe even a dumb flip... but on the other hand I do live in an area where Google (or whatever) Maps could really help out so... I don't know what I'll do when my current one craps out:-(. Probably I will research a Fairphone, but if you live in an area where that would be difficult to repair, then yeah that may not be an option for you:-(. At least you live within the EU though where such is being forced to change, so you have that going for you.:-)
Do you have a source for this? I've tried looking up anything online to see if this is something Samsung started to do but couldn't find anything. I am also seeing 3rd party batteries available on Amazon for the a32 5g.
Here's an example that seems to have good reviews. Couldn't find anything in the reviews that say the battery needed to be paired.
Looking though that it looks like Samsung made a comment
Samsung’s representative stated:
“I’m unfamiliar with the specific variables that could have come into play with this repair or the unsubstantiated comments from Mr. Jeffrey. What I can tell you is that there is no requirement to pair parts on our smartphones. If a repair were conducted correctly, a device would not lose functionality.”
I was checking to see if anyone made any additional comments on the Hugh Jeffreys video and someone said they replaced the screen but kept the fingerprint sensor and it still worked fine. I believe replacing the battery with a 3rd party option should still have the device working fine.