update: Ring sent me a replacement keypad (Gen 2) and it arrived within a few days, along with return label to send back my defective gen 1.
my original Gen 1 was wall-mounted (and powered continuously via wiring hidden in the wall from my old ADT system) , but because the Gen 2 keypad is smaller I had to patch/paint a bit of a hole in the wall that my Gen 1 was conveniently covering. It’s not always an advantage to make a product smaller! 
That aside, I installed and activated the new keypad, and removed the old one from my system. Everything is working normally now - sounds and all.
Thanks Ring!
Let me take this opportunity to complain about 1 serious design deficiency with the newer Gen 2 keypad - it’s something already noted by many other customers and I think it’s got to be one of the top requested features, e.g. Keypad Gen2 Mode Lights
Ring: Please bring back the always-illuminated MODE lights when the keypad is constantly powered and power-save mode is off, just like the old gen 1 keypad (and just like probably 100% of every other alarm system out there).
It absolutely makes zero sense why you don’t keep LED displaying the current system mode status on when the unit is AC-powered. The gen2 keypad has otherwise made using my system WORSE than it was originally with gen1 keypad. Please fix ASAP.