Disappearing and reappearing icons on an iPhone 8

After updating the iOS an empty extra first home screen showed up. Sometimes duplicates of some app icons were displayed there. My own first home screen was displayed as the second one. It was kinda irritating as pressing the home button brought me to an empty screen. The problem persevered with two more updates. Finally, I dragged the icons of my original first home screen to the empty one. Yet, in a short while, the first home screen disappeared and the second one was displayed as the first. The icons of my most used apps from the "first screen" are not to be found enywhere even though the apps are still installed and functional. For a reason I cannot figure out, sometimes the first screen shows up and then disappears again. Updating the iOS to the latest 16.2 version did not help. How could I fix it?