This really sounds like a life story, I had the same experience myself, I have to say thank you for what you described, because you had to follow the same steps. I'm lucky I didn't lose my account. Moreover, I must add that this source https://setapp.com/how-to/remove-password-on-mac helped me to delete passwords from my Mac, this is actually very convenient, but on the other hand my data is unprotected so this is on the one hand good and on the other hand bad.