Disable/Clear Recent in Sonoma

New MacBook Pro. I purposefully refuse to use the Migration Assistant to avoid such things and yet still have issues.

When I open the finder menu I am assaulted by a "recents" list that doesn't reflect actual activity. Needless to say I find it intrusive and annoying.

In the Tool Bar under Go it is ALSO listed there... twice. It's much more tolerable, but for my purposes only the the folders option is useful. How does one make this go away? I've already removed from side bar view, but clearing in the toolbar only erases what's in the folders.

Hoping someone here can help.