I tried re-downloading Opera but all that happened was a new Opera file was loaded to a new location (appdata) instead of overwriting my old file. (in programs)
And it didn't do anything anyway.

Today most of the chat screens are working but at least one is still blank.
EDIT
After viewing about 6-7 different streamers (24 hours after the problem started), chat now seems to be working.
so if anyone sees this and has similar problems I guess I recommend try waiting exactly 24 hours and then trying again.

Further background info: I had connection problems (could not even watch YouTube due to loading) so I had tried turning off a few programs in task manager, but turned them back on. I may have inadvertently turned off a opera/windows file but I have no idea which one would have affected it.

If anyone knows the file name it would be great if you could post it!

Should add: This happened on a Desktop computer, using Windows 11
ver 129.0.5823.28 (just did another update so now it is ver 129.0.5823.44)