Consistent CTD When Entering Mud Flats (FIXED - sort of)

The game just crashes when I try to enter Mud Flats.

Initially it would let me progress a little in the zone then crash. Now it never even loads the zone. This is specific to Mud Flats. I can run around and play just fine in zones before it.

I have attempted these steps thus far:

- Updated my graphics driver to latest version (GeForce Game Ready v.560.70)
- Validated file integrity on Steam
- In game options, switched to each of Vulkan, DX11, and DX12. None helped.
- Fiddled with in game graphics options, turned off all I could, tried multiple settings, and eventually just settled on the default options where possible
- Turned off sound, by lowering master volume to minimum (because of a post I saw)
- Cleared cache folders in %AppData%\Path of Exile (multiple times)

- Checked logs in \Steam\steamapps\common\Path of Exile\logs\Client.txt
-- Every time the game crashes the last 2 lines of the above log are:

"

2024/07/27 03:28:37 7744234 cff94598 [INFO Client 4312] : You have entered The Mud Flats.
2024/07/27 03:28:37 7744125 af7c4f07 [WARN Client 4312] Failed to prefetch virtual memory (error: 8)

I'm not real sure what that means. Any tips?

My PC is pretty recently installed, I have more than enough disk space, my swap file seems fine.

Some system specs:

Processor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700H 2.30 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.6 GB usable)
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Edition Windows 11 Home Single Language Version 23H2
OS build 22631.3880

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU
Driver version 560.70

Available disk spaced: over 300GB on SSD drive

Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks

Fixed. Kind of?

I entirely removed the game from steam and redownloaded standalone client. Everything just works.

Of course there's been a hotfix in the meantime so I will never know for sure.

Still though, I'm a little tempted to say avoid using Steam for this game if you can. I have no absolute proof but... eh.