Mac Mini on Ventura won't turn off display without killing USB/downloads/music too
Ever since updating to Ventura, my 2018 Mac Mini power save features don't work right.
I've always had my Mac desktops turn the display off after 20 minutes, which I have this set to, but it doesn't just turn off the display, it shuts the whole computer down. Any downloads/uploads or background processes get killed, music I'm listening to shuts off, all USB power gets shut off.
Once this happens, I can't bring the computer back up from the keyboard or USB mouse. Bluetooth works so poorly on this machine that a BT mouse is basically unusable, so I have to use my Logitech dual-mode mouse in USB mode, but to bring the computer back up I have to switch the mouse to BT, then once to the computer is up I can then select USB and use my mouse again.
I listen to music on my computer all day while I am working and doing things around the house, but now every 20 minutes the music shuts off with my display. Do I really have to waste a bunch of electricity and shorten my display's life by leaving it on all day (literally all day, 9am to 12am) just so my computer will play music or not kill whether I have downloading/uploading?
But then when I go to bed at night, I really need my display to turn off after 20 minutes, after whatever I fall asleep watching concludes, or else i wake up in the middle of the night to the TV on the process of finding the remote and turning it off messes up my sleep.
So now I am having to change my power save features multiple times a day just to get the computer to do what it used to be able to easily do by default, except I can never remember to change the setting because its pretty ridiculous and non-standard to require changing power settings multiple times a day, and now I'm just frustrated constantly.
Applying a screen saver doesn't help, as even a blank one still leaves the display backlight on. Also, who still uses a screensaver in 2023?
Do I need to bring my 2009 Mini back into service just as a media player? Adding an entire 2nd machine just to do what a single computer used to accomplish seems excessive.
Why does Apple keep insisting on making their stuff worse with needless, backward changes like this?
Please tell me there is some fix for this.
Mac mini, macOS 13.5