I wasn't asking for the Color Settings. I want to confirm that the document color mode is CMYK (Edit>Document Color Mode) and I want to know if there's a profile assignment (Edit>Assign Profile...). Both might have an impact when you open the ID doc and attempt to make policy and assignment changes.
Also what's the Transparency Blend space of your ID doc?
I can understand your frustration but your original color workflow—color policies set to Off, no profile assignments, and the Generic CMYK and Display RGB working spaces is a real problem and pretty much opposite of best practice. Color policies and color assignments get saved with the document on creation, so it can be hard to get documents created this way right. If you would like to post the problem files I can take a look—include the AI file.
