The problem was that our regular forwarders were told (by DHL? 
) that Saudi Arabia didn’t have service or can’t take batteries.
(Snapshot from actual exceptions list sent to us weeks ago)
So we then went to another forwarder, which probably charged more but was more aware than you all may think of how things now work cargo-wise in the region, because they circumvented the import issue by flying it to Bahrein instead apparently and probably just drive it over like @kmak123 suggested.
I think you’re still stuck thinking about how things used to work in the pre-COVID-19 pandemic cargo shipping world. The forwarders just tell DHL where they want to ship to, and DHL tells them what they know they can do at this moment in time, regardless of what they used to be able to do in the past. Whether you feel it’s illogical doesn’t matter if customs and borders are closed for certain goods from certain places. It could very well be that they allow the same goods to enter from Bahrain but not from China or Hong Kong.
In any case, rather than focus and dwell on how the unit should’ve gotten to you however I’d suggest you look at the positive side, which is that a way was found and that your wait is almost over. 