Adobe Technical/customer support, not helpful

Longtime user of both Adobe and Apple products; from the beginning (Illustrator 88) and the Macs with Motorola chips.

I recently purchased a MacBook Pro 16" M3, to replace an aged (intel) iMac (2019). Did the data migration from the old to new Mac, without issue. Also did a clean install of all Apps, including Adobe CC.

With the MacBook up and running (apps installed), for some unknown reason, now all my Adobe Illustrator files show as blank icons, in the Finder?!? And it's only happening with Ai files. PDF, PSD, etc… icons all display normally in the Finder?!? Double clicking the file does open in Illustrator. I regularly save screen shots of the files I release to; clients, printers, and include a file directory with the files. Now receiving questions from prepress and clients, when they see the screen shot with blank (unrecognizable) file icons.

I spent hours trying to resolve. Researched and did all the recommended settings adjustment, with no success. Then reached out to AppleCare, to see if they were able to help; they tried a number of things, but no success. Apple indicated it wasn't an issue they could resolve, as it was the software developer. So yesterday I called Adobe Technical support; spent 3 1/2 hours over 4 calls. What a waste of time!

First call with Adobe technical support. Was on the phone with Adobe, and before anything was attempted, I was put on hold, then suddenly disconnected. That call lasted 22 minutes.

Second call with Adobe tech support. I explained in detail the issue, and they tried all of the things I'd already tried, plus some more. Adobe recommended uninstalling Illustrator, and reinstalling, which I agreed to. But Adobe failed to warn me that doing so would delete all my prefs, scripts, actions, workplaces. Which I now understand is a feature you can choose when uninstalling: Save preferences. Was shocked that the Adobe tech support didn't flag this (having access to my Mac),  before uninstalling Illustrator. End the call after 51 minutes. No resolution. Not happy with Adobe at all, at this point. I spend time to reload, recreate the numerous actions, script, workpaces, etc… As a result of Adobe not saving my settings. 

Third call with Adobe, lasted 10 minutes, before I was disconnected, again.

Fourth call for lasted 11 minutes before Adobe disconnected, yet again.

Fifth call. First Adobe tech support person that was helpful and not destructive. They tried the uninstall/reinstall, but this time warned me about, and saved my setting/prefs. They tried granting more disk access (permissions) to Adobe. Suggested I change the extension to .ait, and while it does fix the blank icon, I don't want template files, as they will open as "untitled" files. That's really not fixing the issue. Tried a few other fixes, no luck. Suggested I save with PDF preview, but I don't want to have a preview of each unique file, just the standard Ai icon. So that's not a fix. They did restore the permission settings; thank you. Had a constructive discussion with this tech support person. But in the end, was told this is an Apple issue, not Adobe.

I still had an active ticket with Apple, so contacted AppleCare support again; which I said I would do. That I would contact Adobe, and if no resolution to the issue, to then contact Apple again. Apple was very helpful, and did provide a usable workaround, though its a pain to have to do these steps to see Ai files as Ai files in the Finder. I asked Apple tech support to do whatever they can, by relaying this issue Adobe. But from Apple support said, Adobe tends to do little, if anything with this type of inquiry.

I understand there have been ongoing relationships issues between the two companies, that go way back. But what I don't understand now is why the two companies aren't working together to better support and service their customer base today? With a dominance of a 42% market share of the global market, Adobe is really the only good choice. Seems their market dominance, makes Adobe less responsive (if at all) to working to resolve customer issues/feedback. And please don't get me wrong, I've been using Adobe software applications for my entire career, and the software is good/great. 

But if there was a viable alternative to Adobe, I wouldn't hesitate to the switch; I have no loyalty to Adobe products. Especially, given the lack of useful Adobe tech/customer support. 

Come on Adobe, come on Apple! Stop blaming one another for issues that arise from using both companies products. All the while, your users/customers, suffer as a result. 

Oh, and if asked. I would give a 1 star rating for Adobe's tech support. BTW, I did not receive an email follow up, asking about my customer support experience; odd?!? It was very very disappointing, expected better customer support. They didn't resolve the issue and don't think they have any intent to. In the future, it would have to be a major issue for me to contact Adobe support, ever again. The time wasted, being disconnected over and over again, reset my setting/prefs, actions, scripts. With no actual resolution to the issue I'm experiencing. No thank you…

Oh, when trying to post, it was denied because the Subject line I had chosen, wasn't in the list of presets? WTH?