Why does the standalone Xbox program keep telling me I need Xbox Game Bar just for voice chat?

In attempting to play with Xbox-owning friends, I thought Microsoft would have had a simple, streamlined program for voice chat between P.C. and Xbox users. It doesn't seem like that's the case.

1) I open up the Xbox program, go to Settings -> Audio, and receive an error: "Game Bar is needed for voice chat." Why I need a completely separately program (that closes when you click your mouse outside of it), I have no idea.

2) I reset/repair the Xbox program. It finally gets rid of the error from #1. I go to Settings -> Audio, select my Solid State Logic SSL 2+ as the input and studio monitors as my output. I join a friend's party chat? I can't hear or say anything. Even setting the push-to-talk button only works half of the time; I have to spam several different keys before anything pops up next to the Edit/Save field.

Am I stuck using Xbox Game Bar? There is no way I should have to use a program where I can't even set push-to-talk to a mouse button nor use the chat unless the window is open, pinned, and I'm clicking on it (which utterly defeats the purpose of it being a "game" bar).

I just restarted my computer and my audio drivers are up-to-date. I also updated the standalone Xbox program, so please refrain from recommending that as generic troubleshooting.

EDIT: now, when I join a party chat, it shows everyone as "Disconnected" for 10-15 seconds before I can hear (if the audio even works at all).

:)