this specific issue has been resolved; MS has release yet another O365 build on March 1st. My systems updated and now I can print from QB 2018 and QB 2020 desktop to Outlook O365 again.

The issue was fixed by MS as they updates O365 v2002 to a new build 12527.20242 released on March 1st to fix this exact issue; https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/monthly-channel-2020#version-2002-march-01

I'm happy this fix came so quickly.

thanks.