External CD writer not being recognised

I bought an ASUS SDRW-08D2S-U LITE CD writer in order to download some photographs from some CDs. It said it was compatible with Mac OS. When I first connected it to my MacBookAir, it worked no problem. But now it won't work. At first it was showing up in Disk Utility, but the mount option was greyed out. Now I am getting an error/warning pop up advising that the CD is not readable. I went through a lot of steps with online support but as none of them worked they referred me to an Apple Store. The guy there said it won't work because the reader has out of date connections that won't work on my 2020 laptop.

This seems ludicrous to me, especially since it did work when I first connected it. He basically said I can't access my photos unless I get a PC (my own PC has died which is why I go the laptop). I have upgraded to Monterey - the CD wasn't working prior to this but it was showing in disk utility. Apple no longer make CD writers according to the guy in store because people store everything in the cloud. Well that doesn't take account of historic work I have (I'm a photographer) which I need to access. I am extremely frustrated by this. Does anyone have any answers / solutions?