Problems with darktable - won't load

Running the latest build of DT on a Mac Mini (Tahoe 26.5.2) and cannot get DT to reliably load.

Usually it hangs (spinning beachball) on "loading utility modules: midi" for about 2 minutes; during that time the system shows DT as "not responding".

I've waited it out a couple of times and finally got DT to load and set the default parameters, only to find I couldn't quit the app! It gives me spinning beachball and system says "not responding"; after waiting 5 minutes I finally force-quit the app.

Restarted the machine, deleted DT and its config files, re-installed it from a freshly downloaded file, and it's still hanging on the "midi" module, but now (assuming I have the patience to wait it out) DT it hangs indefinitely on "initializing Lua" (at least 5 minutes) and I have to force-quit.

Before I give up completely and trash DT for good, do you have any suggestions?