You should be able to safely ignore the depricated nodes, they haven’t caused any problems so far (at least up until 4.18). With the sample project, there is no configuring to do - the standalone sample project should just work out of the box.
Can you create a new project from the launcher to see if it still has the issue?
EDIT: Which editor version are you working in by the way? I’ve just tried a new project with 4.18.1 from the launcher without any problems.