It was recent-ish. Something to do with setting it up on mobile vs setting up on PC and Vrak was going to look into it. It was not supposed to FORCE the SMS part. They should be separate.
I will edit if I can find the thread and Vrak’s comments on it.
So it was Perl who had the troubleshooting comments in November.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/cant-use-authenticator/716572/12
Read that thread. Perl could set it up but the OP could not. It seems the difference is using the device vs using the PC interface for the actual set up.
Read everything Perl wrote when troubleshooting and see if any of that helps you to set it up using the computer interface instead.