Spyder install from conda defaults channel installs wrong pyqt version, then fails on start

When creating a new environment with spyder after about a week ago:

conda create -n spydertest spyder

conda creates the environment and installs spyder, but incorrectly installs a version of pyqt (version 6, currently at version 6.11.0) that spyder is not currently compatible with. It needs version 5 (latest version = 5.15.11).

I tested 2 different solutions, both work:

conda create -n spydertest pyqt=5.15.11 spyder

which forces the correct pyqt version. The version at conda-forge seems to work correctly, so the following also works fine:

conda create -n spydertest spyder -c conda-forge

I’m assuming this means that the package requirements for the spyder package in the conda defaults channel is incorrect? I submitted this report to the Spyder github ( Spyder failing to start from *fresh* conda environment after last week · Issue #26365 · spyder-ide/spyder · GitHub ), but they said they don’t have control of the package in the conda defaults channel, only the one in conda-forge.