Ventura Spotlight not opening some files, cannot tell pattern

Since installing Ventura a few weeks ago, Spotlight is not opening some files, apparently because they do not "relate" well with the correspoding application. This I infer since the app icon is not showing next to those; instead, they have a Finder icon. Which will do nothing if clicking, pressing enter or trying any other imaginable action.

I cannot tell a pattern, since e.g. some pdf files open in Preview correctly, but other don't. I looked into whether this was related to recent/old files, storage folder, local vs Cloud copy. Not related to any to these. Settings are not inhibiting spotlight file types not privacy settings.

Let me emphasize, even for the same extension (e.g. xls, pdf, pptx) , some files open and other do not.

This problem only occurs within spotlight; in Finder iself, files show the right icon and open, fast and furious. :-). If, within spotlight results I select open in Finder, then, obviously I am in the finder and the corresponding application and file will open correctly. This has been, indeed, the workaround so far.

In SAFE mode all seems to work fine! But, disabling all login items has not solved the issue. Also disabling all background activity. Reindexing Spotlight neither.

If you've encountered the same o similar problem, please respond. Trying to explain the situation in more detail "hypothetically" will probably be a waste of time.

BTW, I've used Mac for well over a decade, (since.... was it Lion? Leopard?), so I am quite familiar with obvious usage issues. Any suggestion with terminal commands I can handle fairly well, though not a Unix user.