How can I make the hard drive icon visible on my desktop in Ventura 13.2.1?

The screen in your screenshot is not of Finder Settings or Prefences.

Open a Finder window or click on a blank part of the desktop.

Look for the word "Finder" near the top left of the menu bar at the top of screen and click that word in the menu bar.

Click Settings (or Preferences) in the menu that drops down.

Click General in the group of 4 icons at the top of that window.

See:

Finder menu > Settings (or Preferences pre Ventura) > General (at the top of the Settings window) > Show these items on the desktop.

Choose Settings from the Finder menu, click on General, and check the box for it.

(241319)

Really? How complicated is it to check a box?

You know, a big part of the reason I switched back to the Mac is because Windows was so absolutely patheticly dumb that I had to reset half a dozen settings with each OS update.

Here I am with an M2 Max MBP trying to figure out how to get my Mac SSD and drive icons to show-up because I updated to MacOS Sonoma 14.5. What The Flying Finger of Fate is this?

Also had to reset iCloud so it would stop archiving Docs and Photos, and even had to get my Finder Window Sidebar back.

This is just NOT right. Apple is wasting my time the same way Microsoft is. #RememberMySettings, @Apple!!!

Of course that's not complicated, but finding the right checkbox in a sea of settings and not finding that right setting is driving us bonkers, Luis. What are you, the anti-help guy? C'mon, really!