Everything described is still occurring for me 2 years later. I put a Shelly Dimmer 2 inside the base of a lamp and connected it with ease. But I cannot get status back from the device without a refresh. For the most part, I don't care. I use automations to turn the lamp on/off at specific dim levels based on time and motion. I got a couple of Lifx bulbs to fill some WiFi curiosity and then decided I wanted to bury a dimmer inside a lamp. Availability being what it is in 2022, I picked the Shelly.
I've upgraded from the as-delivered v1.7 to v1.11.7 and that made a detectable difference because before that, the failure was entirely related to missing Actions. V1.11.7 displays the Actions "properly" -- as in, not empty.
One example:
The Shelly app in the device works and displays the status correctly. Any wisdom @mike.maxwell ?