New install of tools.. Cannot get debugger alive

No. Logs of a successful communication have the same message. (Error: libusb_open() failed when trying to debug - #11 by sspaten). It seems that OpenOCD is just iterating through all USB devices that match the target VID/PID but “errors” at devices not having WinUSB drivers loaded. It continues.

Have you tried debug_speed = 500 in the platformio.ini? (Redirecting...)