I just finished my own exhausting battle with the Android Play Store review process. This morning my app update was finally accepted after much guessing on my part.
Like you, I believed that the stated reason for my rejection was erroneous. The email was warning me that I was making a permission request that I was certainly not making. My emails and appeals were ignored.
IMPORTANT: The eventual solution might be relevant to your situation.
It turns out that builds in every release track are scanned at the time of review. This includes Open Testing, Closed Testing, etc.
I had an old APK in the "Closed Testing" track that did indeed make the permission request mentioned in the rejection email. Once I updated the APK in that track and resubmitted - my app was accepted.
Crazy that I had to guess that for myself, after two weeks of begging Android for answers.
I hope this helps. At the very least, please know that I feel your pain. If you want to form a pitchfork mob and storm Google HQ I will join in.