Vibrant Visuals and render distance settings are reset on every game launch. After exiting a game, the next time that the game is launched Vibrant Visuals is disabled, and the non-VV render distance is reset to 96 chunks. Have to make these changes literally every time the game is launched.
If you have a NVIDIA graphics card, check that the NVIDIA app is not set to “optimise” games or Minecraft. If it still persists, try to hide the game.
In the NVIDIA app, you have a list of games. Select Minecraft, then click the three dots on the right, and then click Hide Program. To find the game again, you have to go to "Hidden" in the filter in the list.