@arubislander Fresh install. I used the image listed on the Pixel 3a page on ubuntu-touch.io.
I solved the issue yesterday with a clean install, everything works now. I still can't get to that app permissions screen but apparently I don't need to (not yet anyway).
So for anyone else experiencing this issue, all ya gotta do is re-flash back to Android 9 and then reinstall UT, easy fix.