External drive used for Time Machine regularly disconnects

On my Mac mini m4, have been using an external WD Elements 2TB drive for Time Machine. After a while, it just disconnects. Unplug, plug back in and works for a few days, then disconnects.

The internet tells me the following may be the cause:

• Cable
• Mac doesn't like drives getting power over USB
• USB hub
• Pre-made external drives typically use the least quality drives

So to address all these potential issues, I replaced the above with:

• New OWC Mercury Elite Pro USB 3.2 External Drive Enclosure
• New Western Digital 8TB Red Plus NAS external drive
• New USB-C cable
• New Belkin USB-C 3.2 hub

The darn thing still disconnected every few days!

I have another external drive, a 2TB NVMe in an OWC Express NVMe enclosure, that never disconnects. But I don't want to use NVMe for Time Machine, especially when I need a larger drive.

Please help save my sanity.