React/Rails app: webpack Webpacker::Manifest::MissingEntryError - node.js

Question

I have looked through and tried all of the existing solutions on Stack Overflow. I have:
changed my node version
installed rails:webpacker over and over
deleted node_modules and public/packs folder
ran yarn install, bundle
but I keep getting this error:
Webpacker::Manifest::MissingEntryError
Webpacker can't find hello_react in .../public/packs/manifest.json. Possible causes:
1. You want to set webpacker.yml value of compile to true for your environment
unless you are using the `webpack -w` or the webpack-dev-server.
2. webpack has not yet re-run to reflect updates.
3. You have misconfigured Webpacker's config/webpacker.yml file.
4. Your webpack configuration is not creating a manifest.
Your manifest contains:
{
}
The line giving an error:
<%= javascript_pack_tag 'hello_react' %>
My versions:
node: v16.14.2
Rails 6.0.6
my package.json:
{
"name": "appname",
"private": true,
"dependencies": {
"#babel/preset-react": "^7.18.6",
"#rails/actioncable": "^6.0.0",
"#rails/activestorage": "^6.0.0",
"#rails/ujs": "^6.0.0",
"babel-plugin-transform-react-remove-prop-types": "^0.4.24",
"prop-types": "^15.8.1",
"react": "^18.2.0",
"react-dom": "^18.2.0",
"turbolinks": "^5.2.0",
"webpack": "4.46.0"
},
"version": "0.1.0",
"devDependencies": {
"webpack-cli": "^4.10.0",
"webpack-dev-server": "^4.11.1"
}
}
I cannot move past this error, what am I missing?