@mgirdwood you might want to remove all extensions about llms via knime installation and then maybe also remove all folders. I sometimes had different folders lingering around. I have some additional hints in this article.
Also you could try to install the KNIME intel version on a Apple Silicon machine. I have done so to avoid several issues with extensions that would not correctly install and sometimes use it. You miss out on about 20% speed but might benefit in stability.
Since we are at it. Currently there also is a bug where the local llms will not really work offline (you turn off your WiFi just to be sure). But this can also be fixed: