Simulator does not work with the most basic example setup from the docs

Trying to develop for the Venu3, but new to Connect IQ platform
Can't get a basic developing setup to work by following the tutorials.

Creating a project all seems to go fine, but running a file like MetronomeApp.mc by pressing F5 will via Run > Run without Debugger launches the Simulator but simply gives me a gray screen with 0 interaction options. 

Weirdly enough, when I sideload the app onto my watch it does seem to work which makes it even stranger.

Launching the simulator does give me an error in VSCode about being 'Unable to connect to the simulator'

Sadly a lot of the documentation seems outdated or otherwise suggests things work differently from how it actually does. (no .vscode folder is created automatically, no screens in the simulator, etc).

Details about my setup:

- host on Windows 11

- VS Code version 1.89.1

- Latest version of the Monkey C extension

- Connect IQ SDK 7.1.1 installed

- All Watches/Wearables as devices installed

- Running verify installation in vscode via the command prompt works fine

- Running Java jre1.8

- Command that is used to launch the simulator: 

c:\Program Files\Java\jre-1.8\bin\java.exe -Xms1g -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Dapple.awt.UIElement=true -jar c:\Users\...\Garmin\ConnectIQ\Sdks\connectiq-sdk-win-7.1.1-2024-04-17-66d0159ae\bin\monkeybrains.jar -o bin\Metronome.prg -f c:\Users...\Metronome\monkey.jungle -y c:\...\developer_key -d venu3_sim -w