Looks like Apple released a new version of the iOS 26 dev beta...has anyone tried to install to see if this "soft brick" issue is resolved?

I was just in the same boat but was able to boot into DFU mode to resolve it. I was running the latest 18.5 beta on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. Decided to try the iOS 26 dev beta (like I do every year) and encountered my first soft brick situation...got stuck on the battery splash as described here. Putting the device in DFU mode (direct firmware update) allowed me to restore using my Mac. Keep in mind this will wipe your device, but I'm an iCloud user so not worried about that, and using my phone in general was most important to me. 9to5 Mac has a pretty good article on using DFU mode. Keep in mind when done right, you will not see an Apple logo or any splash, you'll see a black screen. Then when plugging into your Mac it will be recognized (unlike with the battery splash). Good Luck.