Okay for anyone else experiencing this it’s bbPress New UI calling a near identical function.
By eliminating this line in functions .php:
add_filter(‘bbp_get_forum_freshness_link’, ‘custom_freshness_link’ );
The dates will again work.
This site is on lockdown Robin meaning it has no public access. How can I send you a private message with a login so you can see the front end of the site? And see the topic marked resolved started by Bob1361 with the title “Wrong date for each forum and on the date wrong link”. The user didn’t follow up but I can confirm the problem.