I’ve had it happen multiple times because of a package that made the Windows Hello (camera) work on Debian, it always crashed my KDE after an update. Not using that anymore and haven’t had any issue since.

It’s a smart remote, they use bluetooth or IR as a fallback. The microphone is only for voice control.

It’s fine, you’ve essentially replaced it with an infinite resistor. With the low currents that a microphone generate, theres just no signal going into the ADC now so it’s just silent.