that’s device dependant. I know they pushed you off, but I feel like they were doing that to get you off their plate. This is a question for the manufacturer. The device is reporting a number, home assistant is just displaying it.
You could open up openzwave and see what it reports but I doubt it’s manipulating the data at all.
EDIT: You could even check the openzwave logs and find the communcation. It will be in hex. Then convert the communication and see what the numbers are. If they are 254, it’s the device.