Well, to update...
I continued to do searching all over the country - I spoke to a dealer in CA that was mentioned here, and he was very knowledgeable, but realistic. From Texas, to Utah, to Pennsylvania to California, basically every salesperson told me that 2023 orders were starting soon, but that things like heated steering wheel and adaptive cruise control are "on constraint" with basically no end in sight.
I finally just grew impatient - the "must have" for our list was 4WD and diesel. I really wanted as much of a "premium package" as I could get, and after tons of searching, I found a
2021 Yukon XL SLT in Dark Sky Metallic
9XXX miles, 1 owner
4WD
LM2 diesel
Premium package (I think, no window sticker)
It has:
Heated front/rear seats
Cooled front seats
360 surround cameras w/ the trailer hitch camera...
...trying to figure out how to know if it has the max trailering package
Rear seat entertainment
Seat memory
Full lumbar
Electric sliding center console
Captain's chairs (manual)
Power third row
Full parking sensors front and rear w/ the rear collision warning
Overall, I'm pretty happy - we paid too much, $84,000, but we needed a bigger vehicle NOW and were willing to eat it a bit to get one now vs. wait an indefinite time for a car that wouldn't be optioned the way we want. Sour taste in my mouth with GM in general though the way these things are price-gouged. $84K was actually a "talked down" price, and I got $24,000 at CarMax for our 2017 Mazda CX-5, so we could make a decent down payment.
The only thing I wish we had but don't is the full pano sunroof, but that was basically the tradeoff on finding this truck in a diesel with RSE. The 2021 RSE is a gem given that the 2022 is "nerfed" with fewer features and future cars I guess you can't even get it ("on constraint") Our friend just got a 6.2L 2022 Denali Yukon (not XL), paid way more than us, and doesn't have adaptive cruise, heated rear seats, or even parking sensors. It's just silly out here.
I think we'll drive this one for a few years and see if we get out of this oncoming recession and parts shortage and find ourselves something even better in a few years, but for right now, we're stoked!
I drove from San Marcos, TX to Memphis, TN, averaging about 75-80mph (TX has a lot of 75mph zones) and I got 26.4 mpg and put over 730 miles on a single tank. Very impressed with this truck so far!