Exported File Size Discrepancy & Glitchy Exports from AE to ME

Has anyone else had any exporting issues with Media Encoder 2023?

The first issue is either the audio, visuals or sometimes both, will glitch when exporting a After Effects comp through Media Encoder. The result is a distorted export, but the file itself isn't broken. My current workaround is exporting direct from AE (then using Encoder afterwards) which isn't ideal time-wise.

I've also noticed that i'm getting a large discrepency in MP4 sizes. A 15 second clip at 10mbps came out to 71MB, while a 19 second clip with the same bitrate came out at 25MB. So I'm having to export sometimes twice to get it to a required spec.