Snowblower blades spin, but chokes on light snow & wont throw

I have a small ariens stage 1, it’s a powerful enough machine for what I need which is sidewalks. I usually only need it to throw 3-4 inches of cold soft snow so it’s not a problem.

Recently it developed a problem of spinning its auger, but when under load it will barely throw anything, then get choked up so the auger won’t throw anything - all while the engine sounds the same.

I had the carb cleaned but it didn’t really do much, it was fine earlier this season.

Sometimes if I kick it hard it’ll work properly lol

New plug & fresh gas