When making a resizing action to batch resize, the last step has to be close the image....but i

Sounds like you need to uncheck Show Start Workspace when no documents are open or uncheck Auto show the home screen in Photoshop>Preferences>General

I also forgot to mention the Image Processor and Image Processor Pro scripts... So many options!

I would try to reset preferences.

I have a handful of actions that end with Save As > Close. They have always worked perfectly and still do, I use them on a daily basis. There's no reason this shouldn't work.

The great advantage of doing this in an action, as opposed to manually, is that it prevents overwriting the original by accident. So I use these actions for safety as much as batching.

Raw files can be batched from ACR of course, but a bit awkwardly and Lightroom is much better equipped for volume work and batching.

Not the direct answer that you are looking for, however I would suggest that you simply batch direct from ACR to resized JPEGS, avoiding directly opening the files into Photoshop avoiding the need to create actions and batch processing etc.