WindowsServer crashes and kernel panics on 2017 iMac with macOS Ventura

Based on a quick review of your EtreCheck report:

Short version: you’ve got a perfect storm of I/O stalls + legacy audio/USB cruft + disabled security, and it’s tipping macOS into a userspace-watchdog panic. The panic you captured (“no successful checkins from logd in 120 seconds”) is classic when storage or low-level drivers wedge the system. Your EtreCheck shows a filesystem call that literally timed out (120.55 s), heavy Photos background indexing (photoanalysisd/photolibraryd), Backblaze activity, and a pile of old audio kexts (Soundflower, iShowU, RemotePCSound, ACE) plus USB hubs/devices. That cocktail, together with unsigned/system mods and translocated apps (Hej Stylus), explains the beachballs, WindowServer/bluetoothd crashes, and the panic.

I’d also flag software hygiene: automatic and security updates are disabled, hosts file is heavily modified, and there’s “AntiCC [HCiSO]” on the install list. Aside from the obvious risk, those tools often patch services that touch login/windowing and networking, and they regularly break notarization/Gatekeeper paths—exactly the kind of thing that shows up here as “Unsigned files / Apple security disabled.” Finally, storage: your NVMe 980 PRO is fast on reads, but the timed-out filesystem call plus constant Photos/Backblaze churn suggest periodic I/O hiccups. The secondary SATA BX500 (HFS+, no TRIM) is another likely source of stalls if any libraries live there.

There is no nice way to say it, but that Crucial BX500 SSD is pure & utter junk. The BX500 easily overheats if you write to it for more than about 30 seconds, the performance can easily drop to 40MB/s and stay there for hours before recovering, plus I have seen many of the BX500 SSDs fail completely. I really don't know why Crucial would tarnish their brand & reputation with that junk.

The Crucial MX500 SSD is Ok (at least it was before 2020....I have not really tested the newer models to confirm since SSD manufacturers are now changing the internal components without any corresponding change to the model number).

Also, TRIM is not enabled on the Crucial BX500 SSD, but is enabled on the Seagate.

I don't know if or how much a difference it may make, but the APFS file system is optimized for SSDs. Your Crucial SSD is using HFS+. Theoretically it should be possible to convert it to APFS without data loss, there is an option in Disk Utility on one of the menus. Just make sure you have the data backed up just to be safe.

Post the complete EtreCheck report so we can examine it for possible clues.

How to use the Add Text Feature When Posting an EtreCheck Report - Apple Community