I want to leave some note about how I solved the "missing permission" problem that might be helpful to someone.

I was having the issue as documented in this kb article: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/mac_word_permissions_missing. Word was not listed in the automation box with no pop-out notification from MacOS to allow the permission, even after a "tccutil reset". Same situation as in https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/103334/missing-permission-for-word-on-mac.

MacOS: 14.6.1
Word: 16.87 from Apple App Store
Zotero: 6.3 AND 7, both have permission issue

Things that I have tried that did not solve the problem:
1. Move Word and Zotero to trash; clean trash; reinstall;
2. Install Zotero 6.3 instead of Zotero 7;
3. Remove and reinstall zotero.dotm;
4. Set up a new user account. In this case I see a MacOS pop-up window asking for permission. Even if I allow the permission, however, under "automation" only "System Event" will be added. "Word" is not listed under "automation". The same "missing permission" will appear whenever I use the Zotero integration of word.

What solves my problem:
Instead of installing office 365 from Mac App Store, I go to office.com and get an installer version of office 365 from Microsoft directly. Once word is deployed using the installer, I can use Zotero 6 or 7 word integration with the installer-version of word without problem.