Did a re-installation of LVMS due to some strange issues. Followed the clean/force uninstallation and then proceeded with a fresh installation.
Config is to use local SSDs on 4 nodes out of a >10 node cluster. Using optionalPath to the disk-by-id path on the nodes, plus a node selected downselecting to the 4 relevant nodes. (see LVMCluster object)

LVMCluster object is stuck in state "Progressing" with message
 DaemonSet is not considered ready: the DaemonSet is not ready: openshift-lvm-storage/vg-manager. 2 out of 3 expected pods are ready' 

Which is already strange, because the DaemonSet actullay has 4 (not 3) pods:
 % oc get DaemonSet
NAME         DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   NODE SELECTOR   AGE
vg-manager   4         4         2       4            2           <none>          7m16s

Logs of a "not ready"pod: show multiple errors:

% oc logs -f vg-manager-l278q 
{"level":"info","ts":"2025-12-23T12:00:24Z","msg":"Waiting for lock","lockFile":"/var/lock/vgmanager/vgmanager.lock"}
{"level":"info","ts":"2025-12-23T12:00:24Z","msg":"Lock acquired","lockFile":"/var/lock/vgmanager/vgmanager.lock"}
{"level":"error","ts":"2025-12-23T12:00:24Z","logger":"setup","msg":"lvmd config could not be loaded, starting without topolvm components and attempting bootstrap","error":"open /etc/topolvm/lvmd.yaml: no such file or directory","stacktrace":"github.com/openshift/lvm-operator/v4/cmd/vgmanager.run\n\t/workspace/cmd/vgmanager/vgmanager.go:187\ngithub.com/openshift/lvm-operator/v4/cmd/vgmanager.runWithFileLock\n\t/workspace/cmd/vgmanager/vgmanager.go:128\ngithub.com/openshift/lvm-operator/v4/cmd/vgmanager.NewCmd.func1\n\t/workspace/cmd/vgmanager/vgmanager.go:97\ngithub.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).execute\n\t/cachi2/output/deps/gomod/pkg/mod/github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.9.1/command.go:1015\ngithub.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).ExecuteC\n\t/cachi2/output/deps/gomod/pkg/mod/github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.9.1/command.go:1148\ngithub.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).Execute\n\t/cachi2/output/deps/gomod/pkg/mod/github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.9.1/command.go:1071\nmain.main\n\t/workspace/cmd/main.go:33\nruntime.main\n\t/usr/lib/golang/src/runtime/proc.go:283"}
{"level":"info","ts":"2025-12-23T12:00:24Z","logger":"setup","msg":"starting manager"}
...
...
{"level":"error","ts":"2025-12-23T12:00:24Z","msg":"Reconciler error","controller":"lvmvolumegroup","controllerGroup":"lvm.topolvm.io","controllerKind":"LVMVolumeGroup","LVMVolumeGroup":{"name":"local-ssd","namespace":"openshift-lvm-storage"},"namespace":"openshift-lvm-storage","name":"local-ssd","reconcileID":"9d062dba-b558-4f36-aafd-fa856c37b707","error":"could not get LVMVolumeGroupNodeStatus: LVMVolumeGroupNodeStatus.lvm.topolvm.io \"storm2\" not found","stacktrace":"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/internal/controller.(*Controller[...]).reconcileHandler\n\t/cachi2/output/deps/gomod/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.21.0/pkg/internal/controller/controller.go:353\nsigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/internal/controller.(*Controller[...]).processNextWorkItem\n\t/cachi2/output/deps/gomod/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.21.0/pkg/internal/controller/controller.go:300\nsigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/internal/controller.(*Controller[...]).Start.func2.1\n\t/cachi2/output/deps/gomod/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.21.0/pkg/internal/controller/controller.go:202"}

 4.20

Cluster is available on Red Hat VPN - ping me on slack for access 
MustGather will be uploaded to gdrive soon