UPDATE
Realized I can connect via serial super easy on mac - this is the result:
https://pastebin.com/raw/ThHYgeYw
I entered firstboot -y; sync; reboot and now its AP popping up again. did the wifi setup via ssh this time.
Seems to all work now...
I'll leave this here, maybe someone finds it useful.
Some more info here is that the serial drivers offered for mac are crashing on M1 big sur but are apparently not even needed, the omega shows up as /dev/tty.usbserial-0001