Modifying .htaccess causes server error 500

I have a one click Wordpress installation and followed the solution here and I’m still getting server error 500 when I modify php_value upload_max_filesize 128M in .htaccess (this used to be the only way that worked)

I followed the change in virtualhosts suggested [on DO here] (https://www.digitalocean.com/community/questions/when-i-add-mod_expires-rules-in-htaccess-file-i-am-getting-500-server-error)

I tried all the changes but the last filter approach [here too] (https://kinsta.com/blog/wordpress-maximum-upload-file-size/) changing max_file_upload size in

wp-config

in php.ini adding this to .htaccess (doesn’t cause error 500)

<IfModule mod_suphp.c> 
suPHP_ConfigPath ../../../etc/php/7.4/fpm/
</IfModule>

.user.ini

I used to be able to change .htaccess before setting up http/2 in case that helps Thanks in advance!