I have fixed the issue, too - but in a different and weird way:
Compared to my previous tries (and failures), there are mainly three things that differ:
- I switched the SPT client folder location from the root of drive (i.e. G:\SPT) to my main "Game" folder where i install nearly all my games (where other clients such as Steam, Origin are installed) and Battlestate Launcher to root (i.e. G:\Battlestate Games) and did a fresh download of the EFT client there.
- Before patching, i opened the "properties" window belonging to SPT folder and unchecked the "read only" box - i knew it does little to nothing because of that despicable security update by Microsoft, but then again, what would i lose right?
- And lastly, by chance i stumbled upon BSG launcher settings and unchecked the "allow automatic updates for this game" option. I am not sure whether this had any effect or not but compared to first two attempts, it seems reasonable because of micro-patches that the client probably does without even you noticing.
Anyway, the SPT-Aki launcher and server are running as they used to. Yet i have very little insight to what happened, at all!