Swatches groups and objects acting weird

I'm having few problems with Illustrator that no one I aksed could help me.

It started after uldating to 2026 version on mac sequoia

First was with swatches - it looks like objects, groups and layers have their own fills and strokes, and these can 'sit above' the individual objects’ appearances, as it if was a 'mask' - I will try to desribe because I can't even explain:

- when recolor a group, it adds a group fill on top of the objects instead of replacing each object’s fill.

- when enter the group and recolor an object, Illustrator still keeps the group appearance on top, so the object never looks like the color assigned.

- same happens to layers

I don't know if there is a problem with my settings or anything else.

I would appreciate any help, as it is making me work way longer to do symple tasks.

Thanks,

Ana