Excel VBA Updates not functioning as intended

Thanks all - not sure my last response ever posted.  The underlying reason for my original date comparison failing makes sense, though the technical side of forcing the process is a bit beyond my understanding.  That said - i won't try to digest all of it, i just appreciate the help.   Also, i attempted to use the v4 update process, and it errors in two critical areas:

1. the code has four sets of what appears to be line breaks indicated by three apostrophes.  Each of these causes a compile failure, but removing them allows the macro to compile.  Do these serve a programming purpose (beyond visual organization) such that removing them would cause a problem?
2. the date input box errors no matter what date value i input.  11/01/2025, 12/1/2026, etc.  Formatting doesn't change, always returns "Invalid Date Format" message.  I've attempted to root cause it, but again fairly out of my depth at this point.