[Backport release_9.1.1] Fix networkDiagnostics validation failure with Server-Side Apply

[xh013325]

Summary

This is a backport of #316 to the release_9.1.1 branch.

This fixes an issue where the nsx-ncp-operator degrades on OpenShift due to an OpenAPI schema validation mismatch with newer OpenShift versions (OCP 4.16+).

Even though the managedFields issue was resolved, when the operator's configmap-controller (updateNetworkStatus) attempts to patch the Network.config.openshift.io resource, it serializes empty nested fields of the networkDiagnostics struct as JSON null values. The OpenShift API server's CRD validation strictly prohibits null for these fields (expecting objects or arrays).

To fix this, we remove the spec field from the apply configuration so that the operator only applies status/metadata changes, avoiding schema validation failures on uninitialized spec.networkDiagnostics fields.

Test plan

• Backport cleanly applied via cherry-pick.

Made with Cursor

[heypnus]

I had a quick chat with Xiao about this patch. Due to environment and time constraints, it hasn't been run through e2e tests yet. However, given its limited potential side effects, we decided to merge it first to speed up follow-up validation.