Incorrect album artwork applied when syncing to my iPad

Firstly, I'm not a Music subscriber but I do use iTunes and subscribe to iTunes Match.

When i normally copy or download a CD to iTunes on my Music (on a MacBook Pro, and latest MacOS), if it doesn't have the artwork then it it just leaves the artwork blank. I normally then photograph the CD cover and apply it as new artwork in 'CD Info' on the album itself . However, in the last few months it seems to be applying a random cover (from a podcast I use!) to all these particular albums whenever I sync my music library to my iPad (always latest iPadOS).

I managed to find a way round it by first syncing just ONE song (effectively deleting the library on my iPad ). I then went into Music -> Settings -> Advanced and unticked the 'Automatically Update Artwork' option. and then synced again. This time it copied across the music library as normal but leaving the album artwork blank where I hadn't updated the artwork myself.

I now want to know why the current Syncing routine does this random update in the first place? There must be millions of Music/Itunes users out there with this problem. Can Apple advise how it can get it's 'Get Artwork' function back on track and, if it cannot find the actual artwork from the specific album, then say so and don't apt date with a random substitute! It's AI gone stupid!

Thank you