Sorry, I know it's challenging sometimes when you can't see what's happening. Hopefully this is a better description:
Apple -> Sleep : Screen turns off, wait a few minutes and wake with spacebar - resumes from sleep, brightness slider works no apparent issues.
Lid -> Close : wait a few minutes, open lid. - keyboard lights up, but screen doesn't turn on. Pressing space turns on the display. Display is dim (maybe 30% brightness), the brightness slider doesn't work and screen turns off while the device is being used.
Seeing your advise in another thread on a similar issue I captured an IOReg when it's in that state (it's attached to the first post)