Issue: Every time I open the Minecraft launcher it opens to the "play" tab of the Minecraft: java edition tab, as expected, but it will always, without fail, default to a Minecraft installation that is not the most recently played version. I can open the launcher, select the version I want, hit play, and play the version I selected, but every time I close Minecraft and re-open the launcher, it will default back to the same version that isn't the most recently played version.

things I have tried:
+ downloading the installer, and using the option to repair the Minecraft Windows legacy launcher (I've repeatedly tried installing the newer one but every time I try it fails and gives me an error message)
+ manually deleting all Minecraft launcher files, then installing the launcher again
+ manually editing the "Launcher_profiles.json" and removing the offending Minecraft version. this resulted in the launcher always defaulting to a different minecraft version.

when doing this last step, I noticed that inside the "launcher_profiles.json" file, the most recently played date for the version I kept launching wouldn't change, and was stuck on Sept 10th. I tested it again, making sure to close the text editor, the folder, and anything that might have that file open, to make sure it was available for the launcher to edit, and the last used date did not change.

it appears the launcher is not editing this file. I tried the same test again, except I restarted my computer so no programs could possibly have it open. same issue. I made sure the file wasn't marked as read-only, and it wasn't. I tried creating a new installation and launched it, then I closed Minecraft and checked back on the file, and saw that while the "created" date was correct, but the "lastused" date was "1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z" which appears to be the earliest possible date in UNIX time. so the launcher CAN modify the file, but it refuses to update the "lastused" date, causing this issue.

some information about the launcher version:
launcher: "Windows 10.0 3.1.13"
bootstrap: "2.0.16"
UI: "3.1.13"