Update: looks like the return of this problem is being triggered by Ubuntu Updater of Dec 17 give or take a few days. That update includes AppIndicator/KStatusNotifierItem support for Gnome Shell, common files for Gnome desktop apps, crash reporting, input device management and event handling library changes, introspection data for Gnome desktop, Python 3 changes, Utility library for loading .desktop files, wrapper library for evdev devices, and removal of "unused" kernel updates related to Linux kernel 5.4.0 among other things. Again: this is in the LTS 20.04 version! This should not be happening!
Update: looks like the return of this problem is being triggered by Ubuntu Updater of Dec 17 give or take a few days. That update includes AppIndicator/ KStatusNotifier Item support for Gnome Shell, common files for Gnome desktop apps, crash reporting, input device management and event handling library changes, introspection data for Gnome desktop, Python 3 changes, Utility library for loading .desktop files, wrapper library for evdev devices, and removal of "unused" kernel updates related to Linux kernel 5.4.0 among other things. Again: this is in the LTS 20.04 version! This should not be happening!