My wife ran into a somewhat analogous situation in Catalina (although she/we did not explore it as deeply as you). It was resolved by resetting the print system...
Originally Posted By: Mac Help
  1. On your Mac choose Apple Menu  > System Preferences > Printers &* Scanners
  2. Hold down the control (∧) key as you click on the list at the left, then choose "Reset Printing System" on the menu that appears. After you reset the printing system, the list of printers in Printers & scanners is empty
  3. Re-add any printers
For one reason or another, I have had to reset the print system every six months to a year. Deleting and re-installing a printer doesn't get the job done, rather I have found it necessary to completely flush CUPS (Common Unix Print System).

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