This is both a question and a partial answer for those who stumble upon the same issue in the future. Our app passed review, and we started a phased release. The app instantly got the status "Pending Agreement", which was new to us. There were no agreements available to accept. By googling it, it seems this often refers to updated agreements related to paid apps, but this is a free app, and the "Agreements, Tax and Banking"-tab showed that the "Free apps"-type was "Active". So why did we receive "Pending Agreement"? In the app's "Pricing and Availability" page, the option for "Apple Silicon Mac Availability" had somehow automatically been enabled. Simply disabling this option instantly made the app "Ready For Sale". But it completely bypassed the "phased release", and the app was completely rolled out by saving this option. We assume the "Agreement" is referencing the fact that there are some agreements to releasing to the macOS AppStore. But why was this option suddenly enabled for us, without our consent and without us having a macOS-agreement? And why did disabling it completely bypass the phased release?