Update on my situation. This was happening, but my computer needed an update. I'm not a computer person so couldn't tell you if this was relevant. The update was:
2021-01 Cumulative Update Preview for .NET framework 3.5 and 4.8 for Windows 10 Version 2004 for x64 (KB4586876).
Did this update fix the issue? I have no idea. Correlation doesn't equal causation, but it's working now.
Five minutes after I hit "Post reply" it might start messing up again. In that case, I'll talk to you all in five minutes. If not, hopefully I'm G2G.
Edit...
It was working well for a good 15 to 20 minutes and now it's back to not loading. Yup. Something is wrong with the game.