Kernel panic

The only thing I see in the EtreCheck report is that it is very slow writing to the SSD which may indicate an issue with the file system or the SSD. I'm not sure about the Kernel Panics, but the second one indicates Spotlight crashing which could reinforce the file system or SSD issue. If Disk Utility First Aid runs clean, then you may want to back everything up and erase the physical drive to reinstall macOS or restore from backup. Note: You should always have good verified working backups which is even more important since an SSD can fail without any warning signs and it is nearly impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD.

Try running the laptop in Safe Mode to see if you still experience the problems. Also try creating a new user account to see if there could be something with your main account.

Try running a Disk Speed Test to see what it reports for the write speed of your SSD. Writes are normally slower than reads, but the EtreCheck app showed a write speed much slower than expected. I would expect the write speeds to be no slower than about 1,400MB/s.

See if your laptop qualifies for either of these two free repair programs:

SSD repair program:

https://support.apple.com/13-inch-macbook-pro-solid-state-drive-service

Battery repair program:

https://support.apple.com/13inch-macbookpro-battery-replacement

FYI, here is a current list of all the publicly acknowledged free repair programs for Apple products (there are two more for your laptop):

https://support.apple.com/exchange_repair

Post a few of the Kernel Panics here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. You can find the Kernel Panics by using the Console app. You may find them located in the "Diagnostic" folder or the "/var/logs" or "/private/var/logs" folder accessed from the left pane of the Console app. Clicking on a folder will open another pane within the app which will list the various log files. Look for the ones beginning with "kernel" and ending in ".panic". The middle of the file name contains the date/time stamp.

You may also want to run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.

m977 wrote:

Disk Utility First Aid runs clean. I've already tried to reinstall macOS. Do you think updating to Catalina might help?

No, upgrading will just make troubleshooting even more difficult. A clean install of macOS (without migrating from a backup) is enough to determine if you have a hardware or software issue.

Will it be relevant to try creating a new user if I've already reinstalled macOS? A new user was made in the process and all programs and files are gone, except for photos restored from iCloud and a few programs I've downloaded after the reinstall.

Did you perform a clean install of macOS and test it without migrating anything from a backup? If you had problems with a clean install, then it means you likely have a hardware issue which needs to be repaired by Apple. If the issue only occurred after installing some apps, then one of those apps may be the source of the problem.

The Disk Speed Test gives these results: Write speed - 682 MB/s, Read speed - 2191MB/s. What could be the cause of the slow write speed and is there any way to fix it?

Hard to say. The speed test can be affected by a lot of things. An SSD can become temporarily slow after having written GBs of data in a short period of time. Usually I recommend performing a hardware secure erase on the SSD to reset it to factory defaults as it also restores any lost performance and it can also sometimes fix some other odd issues. However, only Linux has the necessary tools to access the hardware feature of the SSDs (assuming the SSD supports this feature - not all Apple SSD suppport it).

Unfortunately I haven't had much luck performing this secure erase on the 2016+ systems. I'm not sure if it is because most of these Apple SSDs don't support the hardware secure erase or whether it is due to the systems I've tried it on being locked down by a corporate management system. I'm hoping to confirm whether the 2016/7 models can be reset in this manner next week if time permits. If you are not familiar with Linux, then the only way I know is to use a paid utility called Parted Magic which is a customized Linux utility boot disk which includes an app to access the hardware feature on SSDs.

https://partedmagic.com/nvme-secure-erase/

My laptop doesn't qualify for any of the programs.

Also, the last two kernel panics didn't show the usual kernel panic message. The laptop just restarted showing the apple logo.

Sometimes the crash may not be an actual kernel panic or sometimes a kernel panic cannot be saved. Any saved Kernel Panics are found within the Console app under one of the folders such as "Diagnostics", "/var/logs", "/private/var/logs", etc.

I would suggest installing macOS to an external USB3 drive and Option Booting the external drive to see how the system works. If it works fine from the external drive (it may be slower), then the internal SSD is likely at fault. Unfortunately the SSD is an integrated part of the Logic Board on all but the non-touchbar models.

Most likely you will need to take the laptop to an Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider to be examined and repaired.