Illustrator default export location

After the most recent update, there are two features that I seem to have lost. I'll explain my workflow in case there's a better solution the my process to begin with. I design in Illustrator and when finished, I export a PNG to the same folder where my working file is saved. I use this every time, to the point of creating a short cut to export. My company has an online management software where I upload a proof for a customer to review. Works best with PNG or JPEGS, as it'll preview properly. I used to be able to open a file, work on it, and when I went to export, it would default to that file's location. Or perhaps last file opened location. Now it doesn't do that. At all. It seems to open the file location of the file opened prior to the one currently opened. For a couple days after the update I had proofs saved all over the place. Now I just have to select the folder each any every time, which is no biggie but would be ideal for it to default to the opened file's location. I was able to have say, 3 files open, and if I went to export on each one, it would default to that file's location.

A second less annoying bug is the default selection for aligning objects. 80% of the time I align to the art board, maybe 15% to Key Object, while the rest to Selection. Illustrator would keep align to art board as default, between files or new documents. Now I have to specify each new document. In fact, I can change it in a file, but if I copy an object from somewhere and paste, I have to select align to art board again after already doing so on other objects in the same file.

Ultimately, nothing big, just little quirks that I've noticed as perhaps my workflow is a little different. On my first issue, maybe it's Illustrator's way of pushing Export for Screens. I tried it a couple times and it doesn't work for me. I need the PNG on the same folder as my working file. While I can select that in Export for Screens, at that point it doesn't seem any different than just exporting.