I had the same issue. 1.35.4 gave me the error:
error, called at src/Distribution/Client/CmdInstall.hs:474:33 in main:Distribution.Client.CmdInstall” and bech32 was nowhere to be seen.
I followed your suggestion and installed with 1.35.3 which gave me bech32 and then updated for 1.35.4 without the -o option.
Everything seems to work and my pool is registered correctly. 