query loop “inherit query from template” prevents setting sort order

Given your detailed description, it seems you’ve taken several steps to address the issue of sorting your archive pages in WordPress. The fact that changing the “order”:”desc” to “asc” in the archives.html file of your theme didn’t yield the desired result suggests a deeper issue.

Try this in your functions.php file:

function wpb_modify_category_query( $query ) {
    if ( $query->is_category() && $query->is_main_query() ) {
        // Set the order to ASC
        $query->set( 'order', 'ASC' );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'wpb_modify_category_query' );