Yes:
alsa-monitor.conf.pacnew
and
media-session.conf.pacnew
Strangeā¦ that seems to be what others have done? 
Maybe youāll have to uninstall the audio packages and reinstall them. I just installed pipewire-pulse and pipewire-alsa which has removed pulse audio. Iām not having any issues with sound.
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Any orphaned PA configuration files can be removed to avoid any conflicts etc. (whether under /etc, $HOME/.config etc.).
To verify, you did something like:
sudo rm /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf
sudo mv /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf.pacnew /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf
?
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sudo mv /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/media-session.conf /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/media-session.conf.2021-04-07
sudo mv /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/media-session.conf.pacnew /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/media-session.conf
sudo mv /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf.2021-04-07
sudo mv /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf.pacnew /etc/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf
This file was already there, so certainly shouldnāt remove it, should I?
WHich packages exactly would this include? There are a lot of pipwire and alsa packages and pipwire-alsa packages.
Did you replace the two files as @jonathon suggested with those exact commands?
Edit: If you arenāt understanding what was written just ask him then.
He did, he just made a backup first instead of just removing it 
I installed pipewire-pulse and pipewire-alsa.
Ok, so Iāll do:
sudo pacman -R pipewire-pulse
sudo pacman -R pipewire-alsa
sudo reboot
sudo pacman -S pipewire-pulse
sudo pacman -S pipewire-alsa
sudo reboot
Is this, what you did?
Could remove pipewire-alsa, but not pipewire-pulse:
$ sudo pacman -R pipewire-pulse
checking dependenciesā¦
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: removing pipewire-pulse breaks dependency āpulseaudio-bluetoothā required by gnome-bluetooth
:: removing pipewire-pulse breaks dependency āpulseaudioā required by paprefs
:: removing pipewire-pulse breaks dependency āpulseaudioā required by pulseaudio-alsa
Could use option -Rdd instead of -R. Then it will not check dependencies.
And would you reboot after remove and before reinstall? Dangerous?
Tried it on a test machine (different hardware, alas: Old lenovo X220 instead of a new HP Elitebook):
sudo pacman -Rdd gst-plugin-pipewire pipewire pipewire-media-session
Result: Sound system still working, output and input. So, Iām in doubt, that reinstalling pipewire will change anything for the better.
Did you reboot? Try that first before making any decisionsā¦
But if it still works, then no reason to fix it. 
Yes, I did. could mean, pulsaudio does all the sound? ANyway, see my next post.
I have gotten a bit farther: Following https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PipeWire#Microphone_is_not_detected_by_PipeWire (see āNo devices detected after PipeWire update and reboot (git / >=0.3.23)ā I execāed:
systemctl --user enable --now pipewire-media-session.service
I now have sound and microphone!
Well, almost: Sound of videos running in Firefox work, VLC as well, but MS Teams has its difficulties. I hear the jingle when dialing, which then stops abruptly and a message appears that there are no speakers. Hanging up I hear the jingle again. In MS Teamsā settings it reads āSpeaker: Noneā. Any ideas how I can make MS Teams see my audio system again?
Ah, this could be important: The test option (Control Center ā Sound ā Hardware ā Test Speakers ā Front Left Test / Front Right Test) in Gnome doesnāt work either.
Another one: If I run MS Teams thru apulse, it works, speaker and micro. In its settings it reads: āSpeaker: default and only sinkā.
Great that youāve made good progress!
It may be some DE specific thing causing issues.
I guess our audio expert @ricklinux can help you more. Or anyone else that knows about audio issues more than I do.
This SCREAMS a kernel issue.
Are you on the linux latest kernel? (I would bet you are)
Have you tried the linux-lts kernel with the same issue? Zen?
Audio/bluetooth issues after an update are very common on the latest kernel as they continue to build it. Use akm and please try at least the lts kernel. Verify on two is even better. If you run into hardware type issues, especially after an update, trying another kernel should always be step 1.