STILL the same dirt color at all pond points! Even after rebuilding the water material, the pixels are IDENTICAL (0.424,0.373,0.302). This means the water is STILL not being rendered — the same values can't be a coincidence. The water disc is being completely occluded by something, or not rendered.

Wait — the pixel values are EXACTLY the same as before. That suggests the render isn't changing at all, OR the pond water isn't in the frame. Let me verify the camera didn't get messed up, and check what IS at those pixels. Let me look at the overall image map again with the new render.

import bpy, os
import numpy as np
from mathutils import Vector
from bpy_extras.object_utils import world_to_camera_view

p = r"<home>\AppData\Local\Temp\check_water2.png"
img = bpy.data.images.load(p)
w, h = img.size
px = np.array(img.pixels[:], dtype=float).reshape((h, w, 4))[..., :3]

cam = bpy.data.objects['Camera']
scene = bpy.context.scene
print('camera loc', cam.location, 'rot', cam.rotation_euler)

# coarse map 40x40
g = px[::38, ::38]
hh, ww = g.shape[:2]
for row in range(hh):
    line = ''
    for col in range(ww):
        r, gg, b = g[row, col]
        lum = (r+gg+b)/3
        if lum < 0.10: c = '.'
        elif lum < 0.25: c = ':'
        elif lum < 0.40: c = '-'
        elif lum < 0.55: c = '='
        elif lum < 0.70: c = '+'
        else: c = '#'
        if r > gg*1.15 and r > b*1.3: c = 'W'
        elif gg > r*1.1 and gg > b*1.1: c = 'g'
        elif b > r*1.2 and b > gg*1.05: c = 'b'
        line += c
    print(line)
bpy.data.images.remove(img)