UFT Report is broken

Question

Lately we are getting more and more often confronted with problems with UFT. Many API components can't executed anymore, but there are 2 possible outputs:

1. UFT gives a message from "object reference not set to an instance of an object" without even starting the test, let alone reporting. The Output Pane contains the following message:

Start
object reference not set to an instance of an object
End

2. when we execute a test using ALM we get a KeyNotFoundException:

2020-01-22 12:04:38,039 HP.ST.Fwk.ReporterFWK.Reporter [ 1] ERROR Problem in writing Step Xml
System.Collections.Generic.KeyNotFoundException: The specified key was not listed in the dictionary.
   For System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentDictionary`2.get_Item(TKey key)
   for HP.ST.Fwk.ReportCreator.QTPEngine.Utils.GetNodeInfo(Object stepId, XmlDocument xmlDoc, IReportDataContainer reportData)
   for HP.ST.Fwk.ReportCreator.QTPEngine.CPNodeWriter.CreateOuterCheckpointsXML(Object stepId, XmlDocument doc, XmlNode node, String innerCheckpointsFileName, String childId, IReportDataContainer reportDataContainer)
   for HP.ST.Fwk.ReportCreator.QTPEngine.CPNodeWriter.CreateFileForReferencedValues(XmlDocument doc, XmlNode& reportNode, Object stepId, IReportDataContainer reportDataContainer)
   for HP.ST.Fwk.ReportCreator.QTPEngine.CPNodeWriter.CreateXmlFile(Dictionary`2 nodeInfo, Object stepId, XmlDocument doc, IReportDataContainer IReportDataContainer)
   for HP.ST.Fwk.ReporterFWK.Reporter.WriteStepToDisk(String stepId, String fileName)
   for HP.ST.Fwk.ReporterFWK.Reporter.<>c__DisplayClass36_0.<FlushReport>b__0()
   for System.Threading.Tasks.Task.InnerInvoke()
   for System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Execute()

We've tried every direction, reinstalling UFT, patching... all to no avail. The behavior seems to be present in both UFT 14.53 and UFT 14.53 Patch 1 - 3. UFT One is also affected.

The UFT support could not help us at all, you know how they are.