Post Query with Meta Query no longer working

Question

I am working on a magazine website that has a large amount of posts, submissions, etc. There is about 60K+ posts/submissions on the site right now. I don't know when it happened specifically, but today I noticed that my featured posts section has stopped working.

The functionality is simple. When editing a post there is a checkbox on the side what when you check it, an ACF meta key by the name "featured_post" becomes true. Then in the featured post section, my WP Query runs:

    $args = [
        'numberposts' => 1,
        "posts_per_page" => 1,
        'post_type' => 'post',
        'meta_key' => 'featured_post',
        'meta_value' => true
    ];

    $the_query = new WP_Query($args);

Like I said, this WAS working and now it isn't returning anything. I commented out the meta_key and meta_value arguments and it returns posts. I have also tried adding 'meta_compare' => 'LIKE' / '=' as a last argument and that did not work.

I have tried rewriting the meta as a meta_query:

'meta_query' => array(
    array(
        'key' => 'featured_post',
        'value' => true
    )
)

I've also tried including a compare argument after the 'value' argument too:

'compare' => 'LIKE' and also tried 'compare' => '=' I've also tried using square brackets instead of calling array(). And tried calling the meta_value as 1 and '1' instead of true.

And I have also tried wp_reset_postdata(), wp_reset_query(), and even remove_all_actions('pre_get_posts') at the same time, different times, and a mix.

I have also looked in the database and I get see the meta_value in the postmeta table.

I am absolutely at a loss as to why this stopped working. Any help is appreciated.