SSH service no longer automatically starts after Ubuntu server upgrade to 22.04 LTS

I have a VPS running Ubuntu server 22.04 LTS which was recently upgraded from 20.04 LTS. Since the upgrade, the SSH service no longer automatically starts - it worked for 2+ years without any issue before that - when trying to connect using Putty I get "Network error: Connection refused". After some searching, I was able to log back thru the console and I see the following:

I was then able to get SSH back working by doing:

sudo systemctl stop sshsudo systemctl disable sshsudo systemctl enable sshsudo systemctl restart ssh

However, the issue would persist after the next Reboot. I have tried the following without success. Any help would be appreciated.

1. sudo apt install openssh-server –reinstall did not work.
2. sudo systemctl enable --now ssh did not work. Actually, it was already ENABLED.
3. sudo update-rc.d ssh enable did not work.
4. Firewall is up and running.
5. dpkg -l | grep openssh-server returned ii openssh-server 1:8.9p1-3ubuntu0.7 amd64 secure shell (SSH) server, for secure access from remote machines
6. $ cat /etc/ssh/sshd_config returns the following:

# This is the sshd server system-wide configuration file.  See# sshd_config(5) for more information.# This sshd was compiled with PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games# The strategy used for options in the default sshd_config shipped with# OpenSSH is to specify options with their default value where# possible, but leave them commented.  Uncommented options override the# default value.Include /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/*.conf#Port 22#AddressFamily any#ListenAddress 0.0.0.0#ListenAddress ::#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key# Ciphers and keying#RekeyLimit default none# Logging#SyslogFacility AUTH#LogLevel INFO# Authentication:#LoginGraceTime 2m#PermitRootLogin prohibit-password#StrictModes yes#MaxAuthTries 6#MaxSessions 10#PubkeyAuthentication yes# Expect .ssh/authorized_keys2 to be disregarded by default in future.#AuthorizedKeysFile     .ssh/authorized_keys .ssh/authorized_keys2#AuthorizedPrincipalsFile none#AuthorizedKeysCommand none#AuthorizedKeysCommandUser nobody# For this to work you will also need host keys in /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts#HostbasedAuthentication no# Change to yes if you don't trust ~/.ssh/known_hosts for# HostbasedAuthentication#IgnoreUserKnownHosts no# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files#IgnoreRhosts yes# To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!#PasswordAuthentication yes#PermitEmptyPasswords no# Change to yes to enable challenge-response passwords (beware issues with# some PAM modules and threads)KbdInteractiveAuthentication no# Kerberos options#KerberosAuthentication no#KerberosOrLocalPasswd yes#KerberosTicketCleanup yes#KerberosGetAFSToken no# GSSAPI options#GSSAPIAuthentication no#GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes#GSSAPIStrictAcceptorCheck yes#GSSAPIKeyExchange no# Set this to 'yes' to enable PAM authentication, account processing,# and session processing. If this is enabled, PAM authentication will# be allowed through the KbdInteractiveAuthentication and# PasswordAuthentication.  Depending on your PAM configuration,# PAM authentication via KbdInteractiveAuthentication may bypass# the setting of "PermitRootLogin without-password".# If you just want the PAM account and session checks to run without# PAM authentication, then enable this but set PasswordAuthentication# and KbdInteractiveAuthentication to 'no'.UsePAM yes#AllowAgentForwarding yes#AllowTcpForwarding yes#GatewayPorts noX11Forwarding yes#X11DisplayOffset 10#X11UseLocalhost yes#PermitTTY yesPrintMotd no#PrintLastLog yes#TCPKeepAlive yes#PermitUserEnvironment no#Compression delayed#ClientAliveInterval 0#ClientAliveCountMax 3#UseDNS no#PidFile /run/sshd.pid#MaxStartups 10:30:100#PermitTunnel no#ChrootDirectory none#VersionAddendum none# no default banner path#Banner none# Allow client to pass locale environment variablesAcceptEnv LANG LC_*# override default of no subsystemsSubsystem       sftp    /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server# Example of overriding settings on a per-user basis#Match User anoncvs#       X11Forwarding no#       AllowTcpForwarding no#       PermitTTY no#       ForceCommand cvs server

Lastly, $ ls -l /etc/rc*.d/*ssh returns the following:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Apr 16  2021 /etc/rc2.d/S01ssh -> ../init.d/sshlrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Apr 16  2021 /etc/rc3.d/S01ssh -> ../init.d/sshlrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Apr 16  2021 /etc/rc4.d/S01ssh -> ../init.d/sshlrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Apr 16  2021 /etc/rc5.d/S01ssh -> ../init.d/ssh

thanks,