Well I would say things remain as cloudy as ever and recent genetic studies have only added to some of the murkiness.I thought u/wotan_weevil offered a good summary of how the genetic story of the sweet potato has changed yesterday. A study from a few years ago (about the time I wrote that last response it seems like) posed some serious questions about the origin of the sweet potato in Oceania and led one of the author's to make fairly dramatic claims— which were perhaps taken a bit out of context by popular science websites— that they had proof Polynesians never made it to the Americas.

Here was my summary of those findings when another redditor asked about it almost a year ago :

The study that the gizmodo article cites did not rule out Polynesians acquiring the sweet potato from the Americas (which some of the authors clarified in subsequent posts addressing some of the concerns about their 250 year old sample from Cook's first voyage and their analysis), what it argued was that it was possible that there were wild sweet potato varietals present on some islands-- or at least some lineages of sweet potato were domesticated from wild varieties that made it out into the Pacific 800,000 BP.

While the study was definitely intriguing-- as well as a follow up by a different team to determine how long sweet potato seeds can be viable in salt water-- for it to reorient any general consensus in the field additional studies will need to come out-- after all prior genetic studies leaned toward Polynesian contact with the Americas as the source of the sweet potato. Considering the linguistic connection as well, I doubt the matter will ever be settled to everyone's satisfaction, but for consensus to shift more work will need to be done.

Looking at how the original Muñoz-Rodríguez, Carruthers, & Scotland article has been cited in subsequent pieces from the past year or two demonstrates the wide range of ways in which it has raised more questions than answered. As Anderson and Petchey relate in their work on the arrival of the sweet potato to Aotearoa, "resolution seems further away than ever." It's likely that my FAQ answers on the subject should be updated or perhaps include a link here since I cannot go back and edit them.

Archeology is not my field and it has now been several years since I had to do a ton of reading on it to pass comprehensive PhD exams, so I am not up to date if there have been any other big papers/talks given on the subject. I do not see any big updates on linguistic studies or evidence at the moment, but it’s possible I just don’t have access to them right now (some journals still have the annoying habit of restricting/embargoing online availability of material for a few years.) I recall work done on oral traditions and potential Polynesian borrowings for indigenous place names in a couple of coastal areas in South America being presented a couple of different conferences (WHA four years ago was one of them perhaps?), but I don't see that any papers that I have immediate access to that were published. That's not unusual if people are busy or perhaps trying to finish a whole manuscript-- conferences can very much just be preliminary evidence-- so perhaps there will be more to be said in the future.

As to history textbooks, that is a good question-- they are often quite behind the times when it comes to History and Archeology in the Pacific and rely heavily on anthropological work done pre-1970s. The World History textbook I have used most often in class, Traditions and Encounter, does address the possibility of cultural context and exchange occurring to explain the presence of the sweet potato and similarities in cultivation. To be honest though, many world history textbooks do not address the Pacific at all.