FYI: I was able to work around the problem by renaming the directory containing the Player Profiles.

C:\Users\[MyWindows10UserName]\Documents\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\PlayerProfiles

Renamed to:

C:\Users\[MyWindows10UserName]\Documents\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\PlayersProfiles_saved

Now, I can start the game. Will try in a bit to actually launch the game and play it with a new profile.

Given that I cannot expect the prior saved games to be recalled, this is a reasonable work-around, assuming I can create a profile, start a game, save it, exit, then reopen.