I think I did not make clear what my issue was. Just because this is a forum post that might be helpful to others, let me rephrase.
I had two versions of PS on my MacPro laptop with Big Sur. This is an older laptop, so not the new M1 chip yet.
It worked just fine on Big Sur (latest version). The difference between the two versions and the reason I had them was not Photoshop itself, but the version of Adobe Camera Raw. I had a hard time getting my around the new masking version. For some reason, I just have trouble understanding the use of masks.
Then I moved to my new MacMini with new M1 chip. Also installed the two versions I had on the laptop and each worked beautifully with two different versions of the ACR plugin.
Then my MacMini crashed to the point that it had to be taken in for repair. Thank God for Applecare!
When it came back, it turned out to be wiped, but still had Big Sur as an OS.
So I had to re-install everything but did not expect any issues because the OS had not changed.
But apparently, in the month that the computer was gone, Adobe changed something.
And now there is no way back.
The way I understand it (but I might be wrong) is that the ACR plugin, that was previously a plugin or even app per version, is now a system plug-in. Which means there is only one version and all Photoshop versions use it. So that was the death stab for my set-up.
I checked my older Mojave laptop that uses PS 2018 and the last CS6 version that I actually bought, a long time ago. I can see that they each have their own Camera Raw Plugin. So somewhere down the road Adobe in their wisdom have changed the structure. I can understand the reasoning but it sucks that my old workflow now is no longer possible.
I guess the universe wants me to learn about masking. No more dilly dallying.
As for Adobe Support:
I am an IT worker myself (I write database solutions with the FileMaker platform) and I understand that when there are problems to debug, they have a script they work from. They cannot go by the promise of the customer that they know what they are doing, so they want the customer to check certain obvious things.
It is annoying but it is them doing their due dilligence. That is fair enough.
Unfortunately it seems to produce some support people that no longer use their brain functions, I am sorry to day. They repeat what is on the script, what they think is the solution. They repeat, they repeat, they repeat. They sound like robots. I am not by nature a negative person. So I did what I always do when general support is not supporting me very well: I ask for things to escalate to a manager.
This produced a phone call from another support helper. That followed the script. And was not understanding my issue. Thought I just needed an older Photoshop. The whole conversation about Camera Raw was very difficult.
Here is what I tested (to no avail):
There was no problem with giving me a temporary downloadlink to 2020 or 2018.
There was no problem with giving me a temporary download link to different older versions of the ACR plugin.
I was told to remove the new plugin from its system folder, then put in the new one and restart everything. This produced a working version of the plugin on the non M1 machine, but the plugin did not show up in the filters menu on the M1 machine. I can use the PS on the laptop, as long as my other machine is not running it: CC has become more agressive about customers who have a subscription for a single person. Which irritates me a bit, to be honest. They already earn a truckload of money with the new subscription plans (which I held off of for as long as I could). Other apps tolerate using their software on a laptop and a desktop so why not Adobe? But anyway, I can always switch of my internet connection to get that done. No sweat.
Long story short:
I blame the update strategy for new versions for this. And I would tell everyone who is the least bit knowledgable about their computer to NOT do automatic updates. You may lose something that you will dearly miss and it will be gone forever. The update strategy is that we have access to 2 previous versions. But what Adobe is talking about is actually 2 previous SUBversions. Which is quite a different story. Also, with the ACR now being a system plugin that is linked to all installed versions, how would you even be able to roll back to an older version including the older ACR? It will not be possible. The only thing we, as customers, can then do is not upgrade at all. Which makes us miss out on the many cool new versions.
This is what subscription programs do. And from the perspective of the company I realise this saves them a lot of hassle for support. But it forces us as customers to maybe move to a version that we don't like or that does not run as expected on our machines. Not happy with that. But nothing I can do about it.
My wish for the future: have a true forum of Adobe Photoshop technical people available when we have technical issues with the software. Who does not need a script and endless repetitions to have a conversation with customers. I do not have a run-of-the-mill set-up and I don't need run-of-the-mill support. I want somebody that I can actually understand, that knows the product and that can give true support.
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