I am having the same issues and none of the "work arounds" actually work. I've tried an incognito window and QBO is still auto-populating the payee field and is using the payee name from the previous transaction. I've checked all of the "Rules" and none of the ones set up are to auto-populate a payee name.

Please help - there seem to be many people with this issue and none seem to find any relief from your suggested work arounds.