React-Native Android Virtual Device Menu does not open with Ctrl+M (on Windows using expo SDK build) once an exception is thrown

Oof well, I've been trying to solve this one for a few days. I've read through all the similar questions related to shortcut keys like CTRL+M Menu not working, but most are addressing the MacOS platform tools PATH issue. Any help is greatly appreciated, I'm quite new to android studio.

The Issue: I'm running React-Native with Expo (w/ the Expo SDK build -- not the bare workflow) and trying to access the remote JS debugger with Ctrl+M but when an exception is thrown but the Android Virtual Device does not respond to shortcut keys. Weirdly, the keyboard shortcuts and menu works before any exception is thrown, though of course that is not so helpful.

What I tried:

0. In the virtual device settings, I toggled "Send shortcuts to:" Virtual Device instead of default "Send shortcuts to:" Emulator Controls This caused app to timeout and return a network error
1. I tried adding Android SDK path to environment variables (yea, I'm on windows and as per Expo docs I understand it's only necessary on Mac, but eh I was feeling optimistic).
2. Installed the vs code extension React-Native Tools but when I click Add Configuration, there is no Android device on the list of configurations.
3. Tried adding PATH variables to .bash_profile because I'm using Git BASH (even though I'm on Windows and not Mac) and I made sure to use the correct path found in SDK manager.
4. I also tried adding environment variables in System Properties under PATH. Previously adb cmd returned 'abd command not found' But once I added these, I'm now able to successfully run adb from BASH and cmd prompt (I'm not sure if this is relevant or not, yet I still can't access menu to remote JS debug )
5. I've also tried sighing and groveling a bit. That didn't work either.

Running Windows 10, Pixel XL API 30 avd and dependencies are below

"dependencies": {
    "expo": "~39.0.2",
    "expo-status-bar": "~1.0.2",
    "react": "16.13.1",
    "react-dom": "16.13.1",
    "react-native": "https://github.com/expo/react-native/archive/sdk-39.0.4.tar.gz",
    "react-native-web": "~0.13.12"
  }

Thanks in advance!