The Supreme Court can over-rule themselves. A lower court cannot overrule the Supreme Court. That is why it is called “Supreme”.
A lower court can eat around the edges, arguing a precedent doesn’t really apply. THEN the Supreme Court may overturn their own precedence.
But yes, a lower court has a requirement to give way to higher court rulings.
Sorry, lower courts all the time, even now in this era, make rulings with legal reasoning contrary to earlier Supreme Court precedents, and sometimes even as a majority, and sometimes causing their decision to be appealed to the Supreme Court. Yes, any Supreme Court may do nothing more than immediately send the case back to the appellate court, without any full hearing, and rejecting the case as decided by the appelate court.
But NOTHING in the Constitution or the law requires lower courts to always and forever merely agree with a Supreme Court ptecedent. Yes, paricuarly if the composition of the court has not changed greatly SCOTUS is likely to stand on a prior court’s precedent and no nothing else.
In rare occasions, as they are able to, and as the composition of the court changes over time, such a case as noted above will get a full hearing by the newer SCOTUS and the lower court’s Constitutional reasoning be examined on its own merits, and can possibly receive a majority that agrees.
How in the hell do you think segregation laws in the south were overturned? Arguments, contrary to earlier Supreme Court precedent were herd and examined.