Lightroom unusable on M1 MacBook Pro

I've just begun using Lightroom on a mid range M1 MacBook pro. Fully initialised system, only installed Adobe apps and a few others (Chrome, ClipGrab, Microsoft 365).

Lightroom is unusable, it's taking about an hour to import 20 photos - I'm used to importing hundreds in minutes.

It took overnight to successfully load my old catalogue. When I restarted the app, the folder structure was no longer visible and after hours of waiting I abandoned using the old catalogue.

With a fresh catalogue, and removal / reinstalletion of LightRoom, I am unable to import single images within five minutes. Previews do not display on import.

I've tinkered with settings but this isn't getting me anywhere. Develop works excellently, it seems to be the importing and catalogue that is deathly slow. My CPU, RAM, and disk are not being utilised anywhere near enough.

It's broken. 

After Effects works great.

System info:

Lightroom Classic version: 12.5 [ 202308091523-68a7abd6 ]
License: Creative Cloud
Language setting: en-GB
Operating system: Mac OS 13
Version: 13.5.1 [22G90]
Application architecture: arm64
Logical processor count: 10
Processor speed: NA
SqLite Version: 3.36.0
Built-in memory: 32,768.0 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 32,768.0 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 3,230.5 MB (9.8%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 412,098.5 MB
Memory cache size: 156.3MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 15.5 [ 1595 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 5
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 751MB / 16383MB (4%)
Camera Raw real memory: 878MB / 32768MB (2%)
Standard Preview Size: 3456 pixels
Displays: 1) 3456x2234

Graphics Processor Info:
Metal: Apple M1 Max
Init State: GPU for Export supported by default
User Preference: Auto

Application folder: /Applications/Adobe Lightroom Classic
Library Path: /Users/joe/Pictures/Lightroom/Lightroom Catalog.lrcat
Settings Folder: /Users/joe/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom

Installed Plugins:
1) AdobeStock
2) Aperture/iPhoto Importer Plug-in
3) Flickr
4) Nikon Tether Plugin

Config.lua flags: None