Screen automatically dimming on 2024 MacBook Pro 14" despite settings

Every time I restart my MacBook or it goes to sleep, when it restarts or wakes up, the screen is dimmed significantly, regardless of being on battery power or plugged in. I have checked all power saving modes through Settings, and have them turned off. The brightness slider is set to full, automatically adjust brightness is turned off, slightly dim the display on battery is turned off.

Once I remember to adjust it back to full brightness via the keyboard, it will remain fully bright for the duration of my work session, but then always returns to the significantly dimmed (I'm not talking about the very slight dimming that happens when the charging cord is removed, this is about 2/3 or less, of the full brightness setting) every time it has powered down. I can't find any other setting that would be controlling this and it's making me crazy, as I keep forgetting about it and primarily use this for photo editing. TIA