Clock & timezone remain incorrect; show multiple (Monterey) Help

Having repeated issues w/ the clock and timezone for my macbook.

MacOS Monterey 12.2.1. All updated.

Superfrustrated w/ this timezone/clock issue and have gone thru numerous combos/iterations of checked/unchecked both auto clock and timezone, and rebooted, and from both users (which are both me), started in safe mode, etc.  

Tried all in manual mode (me set the clock and timezone).

Tried all in auto select.

Tried multiple combos of manual/auto.

The Language/Region is correct.

Also tried all the various location settings.

Caches have been cleared.Yet, none of it will sync up correctly. 

As you can see in pic, while the “settings” hand clock shows the actual time, the digital (and top/screen) clock are waaaay off….as in 8 timezones ahead. With the “auto timezone” it would either not recognize the timezone, or be in the wrong one (like randomly california, or ny, or london, some of those which I haven’t been to at all w/ this laptop).

THE MAIN PROBLEM:  Fwiw, I could easily deal w/ having the wrong time showing, but I believe because of this, some of my Apps totally won’t work to include some that can’t be deleted/reinstalled, e.g. TV, music, etc.   Urrggh.  And all reminders etc late/early.

Anyone have any options?  (Bear in mind, I’m not a tech genious so laymens terms would be appreciated.) I’m currently on the road for an extended period and prefer to not have to do a full re-install (not even sure that would cure this). No apple stores within hours, I prefer to not mail in my laptop, and when I called them, all I got was the standard "reset clock" and "start in safe mode" -- neither of which actually fix the culprit.

Thanks! :)