macOS Sonoma 14.7, and still cannot launch Apple Music app

When I updated macOS Sonoma to 14.5.0, something got hosed in my Music app. I've gotten by via the online version of Music as well as via my iPhone. All my music is still linked to my account, though some of my rarer ripped CDs won't allow me to download them to my iPhone (though I seem to be able to stream them via the noted web page).

With each successive macOS Sonoma update, I've crossed my fingers that the issue will be fixed for me. As of the most recent (Sept 19 2024 14.7 update), the issue persists. I'm not ready to make the leap to Sequoia (macOS 15.0) yet; this is a working Mac and I need to make sure my moneymaker apps work without issue, so I'm on Sonoma until at least 15.2 (that's been my go-to; waiting for at least two major fix/revisions).

What happens is this:

* I launch Music, the main screen opens but is unpopulated.

* A screen pops up that says "Checking Music Library..."

* After about 10 seconds, beachball.

* App crashes

* The Crash Reporter window pops up

Fixes I've tried include:

• holding the option key down during start of Music to try to select the proper library (same issue will happen after I do)

• holding option+command down to open in Safe Mode; same issue.

• various startup fix attempts (Safe Boot, booting into Disk Utility, etc.)

Someone also suggested I do the option start but this time create a new empty library and then re-import from one of my music back-ups but I'm not sure how that will affect my library. I've got music ripped from old CDs going back to the dawn of iTunes, not to mention the possibility of losing created playlists -- though I have to assume it will still log me in to my Apple account for Music.

I've also considered the nuke/pave method (restart from Internet Recovery, wipe the drive, reinstall the macOS, import data from back-up) but I had a bad experience with this once in that my backup was too "new" and the installed macOS couldn't import because it was the base system for that release. Had to create a user, update everything for the OS, and only then was I able to import. It was a frustrating experience.

If anyone has experienced anything similar, I'd appreciate some advice.