Follow-up info: now, after the first time the game crashes to Desktop, if I go to start the game again, when the crash occurs, it freezes my computer (it doesn't even respond to CTRL+ALT+DEL or CTRL+ALT+ESC). If I force a reboot by keeping the power button pressed, the PC freezes on the next startup (either on the login screen or after logging into the desktop).
Initially, I thought this issue was related to a corrupt NVIDIA driver, so I uninstalled it using DDU and installed an older version (Game Ready Driver Version 476 or a slightly newer version). After launching the game, I was notified that the version of NVIDIA drivers had infamous compatibility issues, so I updated to version 531.68 (recommended in the window the game prompted upon launch).
I got to play for about an hour, then it crashed. I relaunched the game, and it froze my PC. This time, instead of deleting the NVIDIA drivers, I started the computer in safe mode (it didn't freeze on boot like before), ran a SFC /scannow, rebooted, and the system started up correctly.