Originally posted by Quikiki:

i7-10700k
rtx 3060
64g ram
etc
etc
etc

good call on the mods folder, although i had previously removed all the mods

I see this same issue all the time in Kerbal Space Program. Another Unity engine game.

People say they removed mods but game won't start.

Uninstall will not remove files it did not put in. You must uninstall game, manually go to file location and delete the entire folder <back up saves if you want first> .. then reinstall.