After a little back and forth my ticket got ‘resolved’ yesterday after the following response from the copy-pasta spreadsheet:
Greetings
I’m very sorry to hear that your hardcore character died. Unfortunately, we will not restore any dead hardcore characters, no matter the cause. I’m sorry for any inconvenience that this has caused you, as this is a strict policy of Blizzard Entertainment. Please note that at creation of your Hardcore Character, you were warned that death is permanent, and this is regardless of why the character died. https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/340652
In the event of character deaths due to DDoS attacks, the World of Warcraft team may elect to revive Hardcore characters, but this is not guaranteed. In such exceptional circumstances, an announcement will be made in the WoW Classic Hardcore Forums.
Characters who have transferred to a non-Hardcore realm will not be revived.
… Thanks Blizz <3