You have correctly diagnosed the problem. The patchers are version specific and usually come out pretty frequently, but if you've downloaded the wipe patch then you might be stuck for a minute until they get the patcher out for it.
I've been lurking here for a while, so although this account is new it's because I had to ask a question today and never had reason to before.
Yeah, for now the only workaround i found was a backup of my C drive with tarkov folder, so i managed to find a 18346 version, but yeah for now there is no official solution to this
Moral of the story : Do backups x)