BTW, I meant to post some of the articles I had read with regards to the SD 170M-A color profile.
Here are the links now. Any Mac users out there, if you can decipher where this may be a problem / issue, please, let us know!
https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/mvb35k/mac_mini_m1_default_display_profiles_reset/ (10 months ago - and the user could not get it to stick to the actual monitor profiles - sounds like what is happening with Spectrum).
Color profiles not working - Apple Community (5+ years ago - and seemingly, at the time, it was the better profile to use than the actual monitor’s profile).
Appropriate colour gamut and bit-depth for photo editing | PC Monitors (2+ years ago, mentions that these may, in fact, be default color profiles for the MacOS to use when in doubt)
New Monitor Calibration question (Another one from 5+ years ago.)
What color profile for MacBook Pro with External Display? | MacRumors Forums (this one is from 7 and a half years ago. But it does go into a bit of depth in terms of the profiles that MacOS seems to want to use (baked into the OS) versus what the monitor should probably be using).
Now, I know that some of these, especially the older posts, are not going to be helpful because monitors of the Spectrum’s caliber simply didn’t exist much anywhere in those times, but the troubleshooting and recommendations in those threads may help someone (or even spark a lightbulb moment) so that we can somehow, someway, prevent this SD color profile from randomly taking over the system and (as we suspect) cause the image retention to manifest.
So, please, MB and MBP users - if you have an idea from any of these threads (or others that you’ve read) that may help shed more light as to why MacOS randomly swaps a color profile like this, let us know!
Thank you!