Resolved, looked through Redddit again and then looked through Anki forum again and found the answer, should have see it before I created my post, but didn’t.
The answer is in this link Hint link is not labeled “Show hint” - Anki Desktop - Anki Forums (ankiweb.net)
I had spent hours trying to make this work. Should have spent a couple more minutes looking.
thanks to mmdj2