MELE won't launch in Steam. Stuck in a Validating loop
I am no longer able to play Mass Effect Legendary Edition via Steam on PC. When I try to launch the game via Steam, The EA app opens up and shows a "Preparing Game" message for about a minute, and the Steam application starts the approximately 6-minute process of validating game files unprompted. Once the validating is complete in Steam, nothing happens. There are no errors shown in Steam or in the EA app.
Troubleshooting steps I have tried:
1: Confirmed the EA app and the MELE app are not set to run as administrator by default.
2: Validated Game files via Steam (approximately 10-15 times). There is no option to validate game files etc via the EA app, as it says "Standard Edition accessed through Steam".
3: Uninstalled and reinstalled onto a different SSD twice. The second time ensuring both the EA app and MELE app were installed on the C: drive.
4: Opened both the EA app and MELE app as administrator before trying to launch the game.
Nothing I have tried has changed the user experience in the slightest, and I don't know what to try next.