Checkboxes: currently unreconcilable differences between Excel Online and Excel 2024

I started working on a database that I thought would be simple.  I start with a product list.  Each inventory item in that list needs a quality control check from each of 6 departments.  In each row, I wanted to set a color range from red to green on the background depending on how far along the check process is coming: for example, the row is red when 0 checks have been completed, at any 3 out of 6 checks complete it's at yellow, and if all 6 checks are fulfilled/complete, the item background changes color to green.  So when I visually scroll the list, with my dyslexia I can more easily see at what phase the progress is at.  Those are the basics behind why I decided on checkmarks.

I started with Excel 2021 and had some limitations regarding checkboxes.  I had to study how to switch to developers mode to access checkboxes in the first place, checkbox placement is less than user friendly, and 1600 rows and 6 columns of checkboxes lagged my PC so badly I had to wait about a minute after scrolling the document before the screen caught up.  I began to suspect I was missing some new functions with my older Excel,  so then decided to try Excel Online mostly for functionality testing.  Excel Online worked flawlessly from the get-go. First off, I could select the whole column and select checkbox on the whole column with one click, which was super slick.  I got my 6x conditional formatting setup almost on the first attempt super easy.  Then, I went to set a floating watch window so could monitor real-time values of which departments were getting more checks completed.  Bummer, Excel Online doesn't support floating watch window.  

Since I also really wanted to finish work on this file locally offline, I decided to buy the newest version of Office 2024 thinking I was missing some functions with an older version.  After installing Office 2024, I downloaded the excel file from Excel Online to my PC, and opened it with my shiny new Excel, and the first thing it did was change all my checkboxes to boolean true or false.  After much online searching, it also appears the most efficient way to add checkboxes to 1600 rows in 6 columns in Excel '24 is to learn how to use VBA macros to automate the process.  I WAS able get my floating watch window up and running with my autosum values from each column, so there's that...

I am a pitiful beginner to Excel.  Having said that,  I keep reviewing, looking for something I'm missing, but a reasonable time-efficient solution is just out of my reach.  Why would Excel '24 not let me work on my database locally the same way I was working with it in Excel Online?  I would hardly believe the dev team overlooked this.  Or has my solution been misdirected from the start? I'll appreciate any input and thanks for reading my novel.

BR,

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