tl;dr: Messenger Lite, Meta’s “less than 10MB to download” lightweight version of Messenger, will no longer be available on Android after Sep 18, as Meta redirects users to the Messenger app. The main Messenger app will also drop SMS support next month.
Another anti consumer move by Meta. Messenger Lite just worked better and without stutters on my old device with less RAM. Plus the ability to send files was an added bonus, too.
I guess I’ll have to use the web version of Facebook lite.