Animate 2023/2024 on Mac Sonoma & Ventura: Published image sizes double file size for some reason???

Been using animate for many  years ,  and now suddenly the version(s) on Sonoma are buggy - and really messing up my workflow:
1- JPG Optimized images imported into Animate, when published nearly double the size when published - ie. 45kb from photoshop, end result 101kb after publishing from Animate - Tried on multiple computers with 2023 and 2024 - cannot revert to any previous versions since I am on Sonoma and Ventura. Any ideas what is going on ? I want it to work how it supposed to the last 20+ years (flash+animate).

2- "test movie" no longer opens up a browser window. You have to manually open the .html file everytime - which is kind of a pain - and does not work as expected. I know there are some hacks out there, but not real good ones.