I've managed to fix this issue for myself by overriding Strawberry to use custom avenc_aac settings.

I created a write up here: https://gist.github.com/jvgomg/38089836f8f47aa6dcf628edac0dec08

The ultimate solution would be to fix some issues with how transcoding settings work in Strawberry, and to have a build of FDK-AAC on your system. But getting avenc_aac working with higher bitrate sounds pretty good to me!

I'm facing the same issue. I'm using Debian 13 with Strawberry 1.2.18. I can change my "Preferred format" for the Device and observe differences in the files that land on the iPod, but transcode settings in the Strawberry Settings are not being applied.

I think it must be something to do with how Strawberry is using libgpod for iPod devices. I'll report back if I find any solutions.