Happens more than sometimes. I play from livingroom sofa maybe more than half of the games in general, and the routine to get away from that freeze has become an artform to muscle memory and instincts.
Steps to get away from it are as described by OP. Best way being to kill all running apps the moment, and enjoy the fact the app logs you back in without passwords ASAP.
Exact steps to reproduce are still unkown for me, but it helps to casually tap on to the MTT lobby games as usual in the middle of screen in order to move it, and thefore when dragging the list up or down, hold one of the games under finger microseconds longer the app can fetch info and keep up.
It's like being given double commands, and doesn't know what to do, so softlock or whatever, idk.
Everyday stuff anyways.
Androids 7, 11, 11, 12.
All but the 7 are Samsung galaxy models, 7 is Huawei Mediapad