Open up the system Utility "Activity Viewer" and from the Window menu, select "CPU History". Then play the project again. You will see how individual cores of your CPU fare, and you can see if a particular core is actually overloading.
In the Logic Settings, under "Audio", set "Processing threads" to "Automatic" if it isn't, and if it is, try "8 (8 Performance Cores)", or if your M2 Pro only has six performance cores, "6 (6 Performance Cores)".
The reason I suggest this is to make sure Logic isn't using the low-power efficiency cores to try and play sounds that may overload them.
I doubt that will fix the issue, but..
My hunch is that you will have to pony up and pay for the EastWest upgrade to get it working properly. That's how the software industry finances development — by making you (eventually) pay for upgrades that you need for compatibility with newer machines/systems.