Ugh, i feel for you. I am continually incensed that i am paying for a cloud membership and they don't even back up my settings/customizations to said cloud. IMO, i should be able to login to any computer and work just as if it was my home comp.

Your settings likely weren’t deleted but are just stuck in a settings folder specific to the old photoshop version. So, you might be able to restore everything by copying the content from the old settings folder to the new one. This link has settings folder locations: helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb...

oh god...thats such a nightmare, I dont know what i'd do without my gradient maps and brushes

Booooooooooo