How to export embedded images (base64) to PDF/PNG

Hi experts!

I'm struggling with something I thought would be simple and I wonder if anyone else here knows a way to deal with this.

First of all, I want to explain what I want to achieve: an automatic weekly digest to my company's leadership telling who will be the crisis leader on call for the week, with some overall information on what are the current hot topics. This is the layout so far (and please don't mind about the stick figure placeholder). Black boxes are redacted for privacy reasons:

In order to achieve this, I'm pulling data from several sources, including:

- Excel roster sheets

- Ticketing system

- Sharepoint

My idea was to set up a recurring PowerAutomate flow to refresh the semantic model, convert the report into a PNG file, embed it into an e-mail message and then fire it to some specific distribution lists.

As far as I've tested, all textual information are being successfuly retrieved and the e-mail embedding logic is working as intended, except for one little detail: the crisis leader's photo keep getting broken. It should be coming from Sharepoint's profile pic, but I can't get it to work.

I've tried several different approaches with somehow inconsistent results, such as:

1. Base64 embedded images with custom visuals: I decided to try using Base64 as I stumbled upon Chris Webb's article and it seemed very thorough. Also, I saw these in several places such as Dhruvin Shah's tutorial. The issue with this approach is that whenever I try to export the report, I get a message stating that "This visual does not support exporting":
   
   

   Per my research, I found out that PBI doesn't support exporting some custom visuals (as you can see here and here). So I decided to ditch the custom visuals and stick to the basics.
   
   

2. Base64 images with standard visuals: I tried using the same approach but now, instead of using those custom image visuals, I used the Table, similar to what we see in Artis Consulting's tutorial. I also tried with Slicer, Matrix and New Card, but all gave me the same results. Here, things are tricky: While I am able to see the image on both PBI Desktop and PBI Web, whenever I try to export the report into a PDF through PBI Web or when I trigger the PowerAutomate flow, I get the same results: Both the PDF and the E-mail will present a broken image icon:
   
   
   
3. Sharepoint API: I decided to try something different. I found several articles (such as this one or this one) explaining that you can get a profile picture from sharepoint by referring to <sharepoint root>/_layouts/15/userphoto.aspx?size=L&accountname=<e-mail>. When I tried that, I got an interesting result: PBI Desktop would show a broken icon, PBI Web would actually show the profile picture, but exporting to PDF or running the workflow will show the same broken icon. I started investigating and I thought it might be due to some sort of Sharepoint permission issue or due to the fact that the forementioned URL is actually an aspx file which apparently sets up few session variables and then gives you a temporary image URL, so I thought this might be the issue. Time to try something different.
   
   
4. Microsoft Graph: It looked promising. I got to the dev environment and simply navigated to https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/<e-mail>/photo/$value, and it returned the picture I wanted. Apparently, in the past, it was possible to connect to Graph using a specific Graph API or OData feed, but this has changed, and connecting Graph to PBI now is another level of pain. I would have to create an Azure App in order to do that, and I don't have permission to do so within my Azure cloud. So, another dead end.
   
   
5. OneDrive Share links: Hoping for the best, I found yet another tutorial, quite recent by the way, by "How to Power BI". He explored several interesting points about how different levels of permission affects the final result. Thing is, his tutorial relied on generating links with public access (which I'm not capable to do within my company) and he was using static images, while I'm doing it dynamically. The issue with that is that when I try to generate a link with the "people with existing access" option, I do get a full path like https://<sharepoint_root>/Shared%20Documents/General/.../FileName.jpeg?csf=1&web=1&e=qrIj4N and I would be able to work with that URL since I'd just dynamically change the filename. However, when I try to generate a link with the least restrictive permission I have (which is "People in my organization), the URL has a different pattern, such as: https://<sharepoint_root>/:i:/s/<group_name>/eBZT4w9fDd1AlodkpVEaHrYBgSw0zyj_vTjLhR1NJfRa5A?e=EwKmkc and each file would have a different token, so I can't control it dynamically.

In my research, I've read that PBI might struggle to export embedded images, I can't have these files hosted in any sort of public URL, and I can't get PBI and Sharepoint to understand each other. I already double checked Semantic Model's credentials and permissions and they seem to be fine - and I believe if they weren't fine, I wouldn't even be able to visualize the photos on the Web version.

I really can't imagine any other approach or what I might be missing here. Any clue or suggestion on how to deal with that?

Thanks!