[SOLVED} So I finally figured out the root cause (at least of of my issue).
Somehow I had deleted the modules stanza in the .uproject.
e.g. this was missing
“Modules”: [
{
“Name”: “PROJECTNAME”,
“Type”: “Runtime”,
“LoadingPhase”: “Default”
}
],
So I could still generate the visual studio sln and run, but no compile button, no c++ classes tab in browser, etc…
Hope this helps someone - this drove me insane for a few hours