Can't get Airdrop to appear in Finder on my MacBook Air

I cannot get Airdrop to appear in Finder on my Macbook Air on the latest Sequoia 15.1 release.

I go to the settings in finder, navigate to sidebar, and check AirDrop as the option, and it either immediately unchecks itself, or when moving to a different preferences tab and back, it becomes unchecked. It never appears in Finder after this action.

In the Settings app on my Macbook Air, Airdrop is enabled for contacts only. reciever is also enabled, as well as "Allow AirPlay for" which is set to Current User.

I am on a stable Wi-Fi network that has access to internet and other local devices.

Why can I not enable Airplay?

[Re-Titled By Moderator]