AE 24.6.3 - Projects hang on open, then AE just stops responding

After updating to AE 24.6.3, I now have the recurring situation where, when opening projects directly (double-click in Finder), the project will try to load, then hang, and eventually AE will "stop responding".
After force-quitting, the error message will show problems with a ScriptUI Panel script like Ease, or other ... 
Disabling (removing) the script temporarily and restarting, and then opening a project on double-click will just result in another script showing as causing the error.

HOWEVER : The weird thing is that when you open AE first, and import the project, it all works fine.

So : Double-click project open = crash. Import project = no crash.

AE 24.6.3 - MacOs Sonoma - MBP18,2 - M1 Max - 64gb