If it's any help, I found the folder with the older (original) saves with little progress, so I just need to find the folder with the newer saves in them (and possibly the version of the game that opens with them) and see if I can move things around (probably into the original folder) to get them all to show up and work, as opening the .exe file directly seems to only load the older and less progressed save files, opening it through the client app gives me the more recent and more progressed saves.
Edit: running the game as an administrator also only gives me the version with the older saves, less progressed saves, it's like there's a secret folder with the higher progressed saves somewhere on the computer that I cannot find, another thing I have noticed is that sandbox is greyed out and that Solar isn't an option on there, despite it being 0.8.2 also, it keeps saying the file directory is in the same place but I cannot see how that is possible when opening it in two different ways gives two different possibilities on the menu while it remains as the same 0.8.2 build.... it is insanely confusing to me.