Time Machine backup does not appear in Time Machine restore screen

MacBook Pro mid 2012, 2TB SSD, 16GB RAM. Was on OS Monterey and decided to update to Catalina but internal drive wasn’t formatted to APFS. Backed up with Time Machine on an external 2TB drive. Wiped internal drive and formatted for APFS, then installed Catalina. When initially using Migration Assistant, process seemed to get stuck about halfway through, and then gave me a black screen and beach ball of death. Restarted after 2 hours of the black screen, booted in Recovery Mode, and tried the “restore from Time Machine backup” option instead of the migration assistant. Time Machine was searching for about 30 mins (the backup is 600GB, wanted to give it time to find it). Time Machine never found the backup, though. Upon another internal SSD wipe and install of Catalina, received the exact same problem. Wiped and installed again, but just configured and booted Catalina normally without worrying about restoration. The Mac recognizes the drive as a Time Machine backup, Disk Utility has been run and repaired on everything, and all files are still there and accessible. I’ve changed drive permissions to read and write for everyone, as well. I’ve done almost everything I can think of, would love to hear thoughts and possibly a solution to my problem. I really need my applications and files back.