I saw that the new Teams optimization (slimcore) was in GA now.......however if i toggle out of Public Preview i'm still showing slimcore media not connected. anyone know which version update finally has it ?

What are the critical new components? First, an up-to-date new version of Teams (24193.1904.3031.6050 or higher). https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/new-vdi-solution-for-teams-on-avd-windows-365-environments-now/ba-p/4238620

well what the hell.......i'm at 24257.202.3122.9976 so above that version and the only way i can get it to work is if i tick "public preview"

Is this for Citrix or AVD? For Citrix, we'd still need to be in public preview. GA is only for AVD\W365. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/vdi-2