Music App Play Count not Updating

Every night we play music via an Apple TV from our library as we have done since Apple TV first came out. In the last few months it's been very random that songs played are being updated on the computer where they are stored. Less than 1/2 the songs played have their Play Counts and Last Played updated. It's important as I have Smart Playlists to play songs that have not been heard in a while. Very random, a couple of songs will update, then a few don't update, then back to updating again.

I have the latest software on all machines.

I have dozens of Smart Playlists and over 17,000 songs. I'm reluctant to delete any prefs that might destroy my history.

There are many posts in the past of Play Counts not updating from several years ago but I can't find any solutions.

I use Apple's MUSIC app, not the Apple Music streaming service.

I use the Apple TV hardware, nothing their streaming service.

(Side complaint: why can't Apple use more names so it's not so confusing?)