@ZStanard there are several other threads on this issue that you may want to look at. Others are experiencing similar problems. Just search for node-red and they should come up.
Not that this is the answer, but I had the same issue…when I used the IP address. Since I did not have anything relevant in my Node Red application, I deleted everything completely that was pointing to the IP of my HA…and then I created a new one as you described above and as I show here…and all my connection errors went away. Not saying this is the perfect answer, but it worked for me. And my debug is devoid of errors now.