All routes except '\' return 404 on a fresh Laravel project

Every route except for the default one i.e '\' returns a 404 page.

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Web Routes
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Here is where you can register web routes for your application. These
| routes are loaded by the RouteServiceProvider and all of them will
| be assigned to the "web" middleware group. Make something great!
|
*/

Route::get('/', function () {
    return view('welcome');
});

Route::get('/test', function(){
    echo 'test';
});

.htaccess

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
        Options -MultiViews -Indexes
    </IfModule>

    RewriteEngine On

    # Handle Authorization Header
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} .
    RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]

    # Redirect Trailing Slashes If Not A Folder...
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.+)/$
    RewriteRule ^ %1 [L,R=301]

    # Send Requests To Front Controller...
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Note:

1. The '/test' route works when using php artisan serve instead of "localhost\project\public"
2. The '/test' route also works when using "localhost\project\public\index.php\test" after moving .htaccess from public/ to root of project
3. This has only been happening with new laravel projects, older projects are working fine.

Steps I have taken already:

1. Reinstalled xampp
2. Made sure the line LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so is not-commented in httpd.conf
3. Made sure all AllowOverride are set to All in httpd.conf
4. Tested on multiple clean new laravel installations
5. Tried php aritsan route:clear, config:clear, composer dump autoload, php artisan optimize

Apache version 2.4.58 xampp version 8.2.12 PHP version 8.2.12 Laravel Framework 10.38.2