Still Experiencing Slow Load of Files when Importing or Changing Settings

I'm trying to render DV NTSC AVI files to MP4. Having extreme difficulty if I'm not using the SSD array because AME now needs to read the whole file before it does anything.

I'm using SATA spinning drives on a USB 3 dock because the files have to be captured on other machines (because Firewire Capture is now omitted on Premier).

Source files are between 8-12GB

Steps to reproduce:
    1. Drop a file into the render queue   

OR

2. once it loads click the preset setting to change settings
 
Result: It takes forever.  Looking at Task Manager, the drive is reading the entire file at full USB speed (external drive), but the file's so big it's taking 5 minutes to do just one file. Unacceptable.
Expected: AME is ready to go within seconds.

Workaround: Use CS6.

Just to test, I started the queue in CS6. The files loaded in 1-2 seconds.  Opening settings took only a second or two as well. I was able to save out point and change bitrate settings no problem.   It'll take all day to render on that old machine, but it's much faster to set up than the new iterations.

What's wrong here??? 
 
System info
    Application: Adobe Media Encoder (Beta) v25.2.0.74
    OS: Windows v10.0.22631, RAM: 63.82 GB GB, CPUs (logical): 16