.Net MAUI Android can't talk to API localhost

Question

I've downloaded the latest sample MAUI here: https://github.com/microsoft/dotnet-podcasts and copied the exact way they make requests but I can't get passed an 'unexpected end of stream error':

System.Net.WebException: unexpected end of stream on com.android.okhttp.Address@4c288121
 ---> Java.IO.IOException: unexpected end of stream on com.android.okhttp.Address@4c288121

I'm initialising the HttpClient in the MauiProgram.cs via the AddHttpClient factory method like so (note the different IP address for Andorid):

public static string Base = DeviceInfo.Platform == DevicePlatform.Android ? "http://10.0.2.2" : "https://localhost";
public static string APIUrl = $"{Base}:7096/api/";

builder.Services.AddHttpClient<DishClient>(client => { client.BaseAddress = new Uri(APIUrl); });

I've included the following android:networkSecurityConfig in the AndroidManifest.xml (which allows http traffic):

<network-security-config>
  <base-config cleartextTrafficPermitted="true">
        <trust-anchors>
            <certificates src="system" />
        </trust-anchors>
    </base-config>
</network-security-config>

The solution in Xamarin it seems is to use AndroidClientHandler but this is in a deprecated library that I can't use in MAUI, and there's no reference to it in the linked solution that works.

Things I've tried:

using Https: I've followed the guide here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/cross-platform/deploy-test/connect-to-local-web-services#bypass-the-certificate-security-check but I still get certificate errors:

   System.Net.WebException: java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: Trust anchor for certification path not found.
   ---> Javax.Net.Ssl.SSLHandshakeException: java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: Trust anchor for certification path not found.

I've also tried this

handler.ServerCertificateCustomValidationCallback = HttpClientHandler.DangerousAcceptAnyServerCertificateValidator; 

but get an error

System.PlatformNotSupportedException: Operation is not supported on this platform

It's been 4 days non-stop and i've gone through every conceivable setting in the working solution and can't find any differences. Any ideas?