Finally! It has arrived! The recap:
2021-10-21 Ordered 16"/32/64gb/2TB. estimated delivery 25/11 to 2/12
2021-11-25 Charge appears on credit card
2021-11-26 (Morning) Order status shows "Preparing for Shipment"
2021-11-26 (Noon) Order status changes to "Shipped". Notification says "delivery by 3/12". Order details page in store shows arrival 29/11. (Destination is Hamburg, Germany)
2021-11-28 UPS and Apple replace delivery date with "will arrive soon"
... no update to UPS tracking, stuck on Shanghai with a timestamp of 29.11.2021 22:01
2021-12-02 11:50am UPS changes delivery date: 3 Dec 8:30am to 12:30pm
2021-12-03 (morning) UPS changes tracking: "Package leaves Shanghai (to Incheon)"
2021-12-03 11:00am UPS changes delivery date: 6 Dec 8:30am to 12:30pm
2021-12-06 01:10pm UPS changes delivery date: 6 Dec by end of business day
2021-12-06 03:30pm UPS HAS DELIVERED
UPS sure had some fun with me during those last days and hours.

That was excruciating!
The laptop replaces a Macbook Pro Retina Mid 2012, 8GB RAM, which is on it's 2nd battery ("service the battery!" it tells me), 3rd logic board, a replaced network card (now with one from the 2013 Macbook that allows unlocking via Apple Watch), an upgraded 480 GB SSD (originally with 256GB), multiple pixel defects, and especially a keyboard where the keys for 1 to 9 haven't worked for the last 6 months (thanks to me spilling tea over it - hopefully the first _and_ last time that happened), so I had to resort to the accessibility keyboard. It also replaces the "music" iMac 21" 16GB from 2011 with Cubase and Dorico. Even with heavy use of Docker and VMs (and some Blender a while ago), I think I'm set for the next 10 years.
Thanks to all of you for shortening the wait, and good luck that your machines will arrive sooner rather than later!