as an update, after un-installing the UFU crapware, MakeMKV would only copy blu-ray disks as .m2ts files, but they wouldn't play where they used to with no issue.
Tried VLC update, no love and looking into the VLC forums saw a lot of folks with the same issue, and tried some of the recommended fixes - no love
then i found that after saving or copying a disk using MakeMKV, if i re-copied it from the hard drive it was on to another drive, it would convert them to MKV files - but to do that i'd have to "open" the "os or ofdata" file at the bottom of the BDMV folder. Then Handbrake would render them down to a size i wanted.
then a few days ago, after the latest MakeMKV update came out, i noticed when MakeMKV copied a BD disk, after reading it, it lists the different files, with usually one showing 25-30GB and a few others showing 20-200 MB (approx) which i believe are previews, trailers or "directors" comments.
I uncheck the smaller ones, and sure enough it copies the major file, which is the movie file, copying it directly into a MKV file, but oddly, in the title it will describe "xxxxx_TS" or "xxxxx_TS01" (where "XXXX" is the actual movie title). When i open properties, it shows it to be a .mkv file.
So all's good now. Plus on my main desktop, it now plays BD disks it would not before. So something's going on - it may be as ronpar stated, sony had somehow corrupted my computer's ability to play BD disks.