TL;DR *Works* with a minor amendment to the DTS overlay pin reference.
$ uname -a
Linux nanopineo 5.10.13-sunxi #trunk SMP Mon Feb 8 21:56:43 CET 2021 armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux
$ dmesg | grep Machine
[ 0.000000] OF: fdt: Machine model: FriendlyARM NanoPi NEO
# Baked current kernel. Configuration ... CIR module appears to NOT be enabled by default for NanoPI NEO.
$ grep -iE "^CONFIG_IR_.*(CIR|SUN)" /boot/config-5.10.13-sunxi
CONFIG_IR_GPIO_CIR=m
CONFIG_IR_SUNXI=m
# Connected Vishay TSOP4838 IR Receiver to 3V3 (via 100R, with C100nF to GND), GND, OUT -> PL11
#
