Bad AppleId Account, Cannot be resolved

I am having an issue so frustrating I am considering returning my new iPhone for an Android after 15+ year of using nothing but Apple products.

I have an Apple Id tied to a gmail account. I can login to it; works fine. But somehow this account has *another* email/Apple Id tied to it (how is this even possible??); it's an old work account I once used. In my iPhone 13 Settings on the Apple Id page (which shows my gmail account at the top, correctly), this old email appears under "Subscriptions." Let's refer to it as the "fix.com" account.

Here is the problem. My new phone is trying to download ~20 apps from the App Store. When it does, it prompts me to log into *THE FIX.COM APPLE ACCOUNT* that is somehow tied to the gmail account. I cannot log in to that account - it is locked. There is no way to unlock it that I can find, with the phone or via my MacBook. Because I can't login because it's locked, I can't do anything with it.

Every time I open the phone I get about SIXTY prompts in a row to login to the fix.com account.

These are all FREE apps. I used that fix.com account ONE time to download a company-required security app on my old phone. That app was long since deleted from the old phone also.

1) WHY IS THERE ANOTHER EMAIL ADDRESS ASSOCIATED WITH MY GMAIL APPLE ID?

2) HOW CAN I REMOVE IT? I don't need it. I don't use it. I don't want it there.

I have spent a couple hours going bonkers trying to resolve this already. I realize I could create an entirely new Apple Id (based on a new gmail account I could create) but that's ridiculous. The way this technology works is, frankly, absolutely ridiculous.

The phone won't even let me use my wife's Apple Id as it complains it's used on another device. (So what?)

I'm hoping someone here can tell me how to "unhook" this fix.com "subscription" from my gmail Apple Id, or I'm done.