The engine ships two renderers, WebGPU and WebGL2, and the game never learns which one is drawing. renderer: 'AUTO', the default, takes WebGPU when it starts and WebGL2 when it does not, including a browser that reports WebGPU and then cannot hand over a device. Naming one explicitly never falls back to the other.
Switch RENDERER between 'WEBGPU' and 'WEBGL2': sprites, transparency, a textured sprite, text and a camera with a pinned HUD come out the same.