MacBook is prompting me to “reset end to end encrypted data” in order to sign into my iCloud

I have reached out to support three different times and have gotten different answers every single time so internet…please help.

I have a MacBook Air that I use occasionally for work. I mainly use my iPhone and iPad, but for some projects it’s nice to just use a laptop. It is not old, when I pull up about this Mac it tells me that is a 1.6 FGz dual core intel i5 with 16 GB of ram. It had been a couple months since opening my laptop but I had a project I wanted to work on. After working for a bit I realized none of my iCloud had synchronized, I assumed that was due to my slow Wi-Fi and the fact I had not touched my laptop in a couple months. I noticed there was a notification on my system preferences, I clicked it and I got a message saying I needed to sign into my iCloud account again and some account preferences will not be available until I sign in again.

I know what you’re thinking, oh that’s why my devises were not synchronizing (trust me if the issue were that easy to resolve I would not be here)

anyways, I click on the notification and I sign into my iCloud account that is already signed into my laptop. It is the SAME Apple ID and password ad my phone and iPad, and I am 100% positive I entered in my password correctly. I just want to emphasize that my Apple ID password is NOT the problem.

upon signing in I am then promoted with a request for my laptop password, I enter and then I get the dreaded message

“you must reset your end-to-end encrypted data to sign into iCloud. This may include messages in iCloud, saved passwords, home data, and other sensitive data”

WHYYYYYY, my password is correct, I successfully complete the 2 factor verification authentication and I am still unable to sign into my account!

so after talking to support I have a couple of questions

the first being: (and I am a bit frustrated that no apple employee can give me a clear explanation of what this entails)

what does resetting my end to end encrypted data mean? Will all of my iCloud data be erased? How will this effect my other devices currently signed into that iCloud account

okay , I know that was 3 questions but you get the point.

I have been told to

1. just reset it and I should be fine and lose no data
2. dont reset and use my computer without signing in (which defeats the whole point)
3. to turn off iCloud Keychain on my phone and all other sensitive data that matters to me so the copy “downloads” onto my phone and I can recover it after the data is reset

in regards to the third option, how can I ensure everything is downloaded? I religiously use keychain and iCloud for that matter

blah, I hope I was able to write this out in a way that is easy to follow. Any help and information would be greatly appreciated, I would just like to use my laptop again, why is apple punishing me for KNOWING my password 😭