  We confront recent experimental results on neutrino mixing parameters with
the requirements from strong thermal $SO(10)$-inspired leptogenesis, where the
asymmetry is produced from next-to-lightest right-handed neutrinos $N_2$
independently of the initial conditions. There is a nice agreement with latest
global analyses supporting $\sin\delta < 0$ and normal ordering at $ \sim 95\%$
C.L. On the other hand, the more stringent experimental lower bound on the
atmospheric mixing angle starts to corner strong thermal $SO(10)$-inspired
leptogenesis. Prompted and encouraged by this rapid experimental advance, we
obtain a precise determination of the allowed region in the plane $\delta$
versus $\theta_{23}$. We confirm that for the benchmark case $\alpha_2 \equiv
m_{D2} / m_{\rm charm}= 5 \, $, where $m_{D2}$ is the intermediate neutrino
Dirac mass setting the $N_2$ mass, and initial pre-existing asymmetry
$N_{B-L}^{\rm p, i} = 10^{-3}$, the bulk of solutions lies in the first octant.
Though most of the solutions are found outside the $95\%$ C.L. experimental
region, there is still a big allowed fraction that does not require a too
fine-tuned choice of the Majorana phases so that the neutrinoless double beta
decay effective neutrino mass allowed range is still $m_{ee}\simeq
[10,30]\,{\rm meV}$. We also show how the constraints depend on $N_{B-L}^{\rm
p, i}$ and $\alpha_2$. In particular, we show that the current best fit,
($\theta_{23},\delta)\simeq (47^{\circ}, -130^{\circ})$, can be reproduced for
$N_{B-L}^{\rm p, i} = 10^{-3}$ and $\alpha_2 = 6$. Such large values for
$\alpha_2$ have been recently obtained in a few realistic fits within
$SO(10)$-inspired models. Finally, we also obtain that current neutrino data
rule out $N_{B-L}^{\rm p, i} \gtrsim 0.1$ for $\alpha_2 \lesssim 4.7$.
