This has me concerned because I always thought of the blade key as an almost foolproof way to get into the truck, i.e., if I lose my key when I’m out in the middle of nowhere. So, I started looking at the service manual, and apparently the key barrel is not truly a mechanical lock. It appears to be just another electrical switch activated by turning the mechanical key. I say this because of this passage below referring to a fault code for the key barrel “switch.” That suggests that the blade won’t work if the battery is flat dead (though it probably only requires a tiny bit of energy). Seems hard to believe there is no purely mechanical way to access the vehicle.
To the OP’s problem, this could be an electrical problem? Maybe look for a code?
Yep, this is exactly what I was thinking - could be an electrical issue with the tumbler switch: ^^^
And as you stated, it's a bit concerning if it's an electrical opening mechanism.
What happens with a dead battery? Does the mechanical key do nothing if the vehicle battery is dead? How do you get inside to open the hood and access the battery? Maybe it really is a mechanical unlock function, with an additional switch to notify the rest of the body module systems that the lock was moved?