@mythbu thanks a lot for sharing this!
I remember my own long nights back in 2018, where @sza2-sza2 and me finally got i2s working (that forum thread you found and linked above ).
Sorry that I did not see your original question earlier, only the solution now - if I did, I might have been able to help a bit.
Anyway, glad to hear you got it working!
But what I don‘t understand: why did the i2s support disappear again after b177? As I‘m using only custom openwrt images, I lost track of details happening in the official onion releases. Since b177, i2s support was a ticked checkbox in my mind…