EDIT/UPDATE: solved/fixed

I did something very stupid. I have my recovery phone number (and 2-factor authorization) as my voice number (part of my google account). I changed my password on my phone (long story). And now I can't use my phone, my gmail, or voice to recover. Even though I have my phone and I know my password.

I do have a recovery email account (yahoo address). That account is showing the "critical" alerts. The account recovery system is not letting me use that email account to recover the gmail account for some reason.

When I click on "forgot email" I get a recovery option and code to my yahoo address, but instead of recovering my account, it just puts me in the loop of 2-factor authorization to my voice number.

This is such a huge disaster for me, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Have you tried https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7299973?hl=en ?

It did eventually later today let me recover my account via my secondary email account (which was not offered as an option earlier in the day). Talk about a relief. Everyone make sure your accounts are set in a recoverable way. Cause if they are not, there is no coming back.