If Clause is triggering, but the contained variable reassignment is not applied

Question

In the energy industry we have dataflows that can't be dated effective from >12 months ago, so I have a clause in this python programme which defects cross references the EFD (effective from date) against todays date -1 year.

If todays date -1 year is the higher number, it should reassign d205_formatted_EFD to be todays date -1 year.

This is contained in the try clause at the very bottom of the snippet below. Test csv for variables is attached.

The printed output is 20220214 20230223 20230223 20220214

I know the final if clause is executing as 20230223 (now_minus_1_year) and 20220214 (d205_formatted_EFD, albeit the incorrect output) are printing.

However, if the clause is triggered d205_formatted_EFD (thats 20220214 by default) should be reassigning to now_minus_1_year's value (20230223).

My debugging came up dry, and chatgpt did highlight a possible issue that it could be due to comparing strings vs datetime objects, but its floated resolution didn't work.

Can anybody shed any light on this? First post, apologies if I've omitted anything key, let me know if so!

# date and time for titles, headers and footers
import os
from datetime import datetime as dt, timedelta
now = dt.now()
one_year_ago = now - timedelta(days=365)
now_1 = now - timedelta(days=1)
now_2 = now - timedelta(days=2)
now_3 = now - timedelta(days=3)
now_4 = now - timedelta(days=4)
now_5 = now - timedelta(days=5)
formatted_dt = now.strftime('%Y%m%d%H%M%S')
file_id_dt = now.strftime('%y%m%d')
now_minus_1_year = one_year_ago.strftime('%Y%m%d')
print(one_year_ago)
file_id_dt_delay1 = now_1.strftime('%y%m%d')
file_id_dt_delay2 = now_2.strftime('%y%m%d')
file_id_dt_delay3 = now_3.strftime('%y%m%d')
file_id_dt_delay4 = now_4.strftime('%y%m%d')
file_id_dt_delay5 = now_5.strftime('%y%m%d')

# csv import
import csv
from datetime import datetime

with open(configuration_csv, 'r') as infile:
    reader = csv.reader(infile, delimiter=',')
    header = next(reader)

    for row in reader:
        MPAN = row[1]
        mpan_prefix = MPAN[0:2]
        GSP = row[2]
        TYPE = row[3]
        MSN = row[4]
        MOP = row[5]
        SUPPLIER = row[6]
        EAC = row[7]
        EAC = float(EAC)
        EFD = row[10]
        TARIFF = row[8]
        DC = row[11]
        SSC = '9999'
        MTC = 000
        PC = 0
        DNO = row[2]
        SSD = row[12]
        # Error handling for date/time formatting as nulls pulled through SQL in place of dates can cause ValueError
        try:
            EFD_datetime = datetime.strptime(EFD, '%Y-%m-%d')
            formatted_EFD = EFD_datetime.strftime('%Y%m%d')
            SSD_datetime = datetime.strptime(SSD, '%Y-%m-%d')
            formatted_SSD = SSD_datetime.strftime('%Y%m%d')
            
            d205_EFD_datetime = datetime.strptime(EFD, '%Y-%m-%d')
            d205_formatted_EFD = EFD_datetime.strftime('%Y%m%d')
            print(d205_formatted_EFD, now_minus_1_year)
            if d205_formatted_EFD < now_minus_1_year:
                d205_EFD_datetime = now_minus_1_year
                print(now_minus_1_year)
                print(d205_formatted_EFD)
            
        except(ValueError):
            print(f"Date Error for {MPAN}")
            EFD = input(f"Would you like to enter a manual EFD (yyyy-mm-dd) for {MPAN}? Press n to break")
            if EFD == 'n':
                continue
            else: 
                try: 
                    EFD_datetime = datetime.strptime(EFD, '%Y-%m-%d')
                    formatted_EFD = EFD_datetime.strftime('%Y%m%d')
                    SSD_datetime = datetime.strptime(SSD, '%Y-%m-%d')
                    formatted_SSD = SSD_datetime.strftime('%Y%m%d')
                except(ValueError):
                    print("Date not formatted correctly, skipping and adding to error logs {MPAN}")
                    print("\n\n")

I was expecting this block to assign now_minus_1_years value (20230223) to d205_formatted_EFD (20220214) however formatted EFD is still printing 20220214.