Not sure if anyone tried but after receiving the approval for PR application earlier today, I just randomly tried to link my mom's hypothetical "Permanent Resident Card" application (different from "Permanent Residency" application). Guess what, I was able to successfully search and link it using the known details + I entered landed date as today's date (and it worked).
So now I see two different statuses for these applications as below:
1) Permanent Resident Card - Submitted
2) Permanent Residency - Approved
I believe once they ship the physical PR card (not CoPR), then only the status of Permanent Resident Card application will get changed to "Approved".
But for now, I am still waiting for PPR email from IRCC or instructions on how to download CoPR so that we can finally apply for the PR card.