I’ve found what causes the problem:
Up until yesterday, after creating a new project platformio.ini was initialised as:
[env:esp32-s3-devkitc1-n16r8]
platform = espressif32
board = esp32-s3-devkitc1-n16r8
framework = arduino
but since today, after creating a new project platformio.ini is:
[env:esp32-s3-devkitc1-n16r8]
platform = https://github.com/pioarduino/platform-espressif32/releases/download/stable/platform-espressif32.zip
board = esp32-s3-devkitc1-n16r8
framework = arduino
In the first case whan platform was specified as espressif32, the framework that was already installed was used by the new project - in my case Espressif 32 (55.03.35)
In the second case the most recent version of the framework is forced to be downloaded and used when creating a new project - at the moment Espressif 32 (55.03.39).
Espressif 32 (55.03.39) needs PlatformIO Core >=6.1.19 and that was the reason why New Project Wizard can’t complete the tasks.
I tried to update PlatformIO Core from 6.1.18 to 6.1.19:
>platformio --version
PlatformIO Core, version 6.1.18
>pio upgrade
Please wait while upgrading PlatformIO Core ...
PlatformIO has been successfully upgraded to 6.1.18
Release notes: https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/history.html
Warning! Please restart IDE to affect PIO Home changes
>platformio --version
PlatformIO Core, version 6.1.18
but the version of PlatformIO Core remained 6.1.18 despite the most recent version is 6.1.19 (2026-02-04)
If I understand correctly 6.1.19 is not development version.
As a workaround I can now create a new project by editing platformio.ini after New Project Wizard fails and then opening the project folder.