I normally have WinDefender deactivated as the 3rd party is the primary AV. As of updates, it's all automatic and even if there was a major update, I have not noticed anything different with the behavior of all applications and Windows functions in general. The only thing behaving odd is Cakewalk, specifically the audio import rate, nothing else in Cakewalk is affected, not bouncing rate, not exporting rate, literally just the audio import rate.
My main disk (C:\) is Samsung MZVLB1T0HBLR that came with the system from the beginning, purchased around March 2021. However all Cakewalk projects and audio files are in the dedicated Samsung 980 disk (D:\) that was purchased a few weeks after the main system. I have tried copying files from one disk to the other, and vice versa, the results are normal. I also checked the link you sent, #1, #2, #3, #8, #10 have been checked and they are okay.
Just now I was going to have fun working on a project, I imported a 86MB mp4 video (5 minutes long), took some half an hour. I finished eating my meal and did the dishes, and Cakewalk was still not done yet when I came back. I can't explain how sad I feel... ?