Update: I was able to identify the problem. The issue was caused by error code 0xc0000007b which appeared sporadically when launching via Steam and immediately when starting the Battlefield 4 .exe directly. The root cause was missing or corrupted Microsoft C++ Redistributable Packages. I managed to fix it by installing an All-in-One Microsoft C++ Redistributable package that includes all necessary versions. I’m afraid I can’t post a direct link here, but just search for "All-in-One Package Microsoft C++", and you should find it. 🙏 Big thanks to that one Reddit post for the help...
