Unity EventSystem BUG: clicking on its own

My editor recently crashed, and once I relaunched it and clicked play, my UI button navigation is automatically cycling through the current selected buttons, and my Player Input Manager Join behavior automatically gets activated.

I've tried disabling and re-enabling both the EventSystem and the Player Input manager but neither was a solution.

I've even launched my game on a different editor version, no luck with that either.

1. When EventSystem is disabled: the UI button navigation doesn't cycle, but the Player Input manager Join action still gets triggered on its own