iPhone 16e keeps deleting 10,000+ podcast episodes after sync on iTunes and Apple Devices app

Replaced iPod Touch Gen 7 with iPhone 16e

Updated iTunes and installed Apple Devices app after sync functionality disappeared.

Get sync error (unable to finish sync) and the 10,000+ podcast episodes I spent weeks re-downloading after the previous time this happened have disappeared yet again.

For context, I sync the oldest 'x' episodes do I can listen to them in chronological order.

This iPhone has no sim as it is an iPod replacement. I can't listen to podcasts offline the way this is operating at the moment, as they keep getting deleted.

This lack of empathy for the user and assumption that Apple knows best has to stop

[Re-Titled by Moderator]