After software update to 20.22 Fenix 7 Pro display is at maximum brightness intensity even though I have set it to minimal

Sometimes settings get corrupted during Firmware updates. Toggling the setting on/off usually solves this. Have you tried setting it to e.g. 50% and then back to minimal?

Yes I did. I also restarted. Toggled auto backlight on/off. The problem I get is when I set brightness to 5% for example, it appears dim initially as it should but then without any action on my part, it becomes max brightness. When I didn't intervene to get the brightness down it started losing 1% battery charge every hour. The watch seems to have a mind of its own. BTW it has always been very good since I bought it at launch and this is the first time I am facing a problem with this watch