OK, so are you saying that BIAB won't even work with the last known 32 bit OS which was High Sierra? What about the very next after the one I have, which is El Capitan (10.11 ? )
The last 32bit OS was Mojave (10.14) and all versions of Band-in-a-Box work fine on it if you have the latest update for your version.
I downloaded Monterey which I learned is the latest compatible OS with my mac, but was warned that BIAB 2018 would not work. Is there a patch that would make my BIAB work with Monterey? Or should I go for a slightly older Mac OS?
Band-in-a-Box 2018 is a 32-bit application and so will not work on Monterey (macOS 12). The first 64-bit OS was Catalina (10.15). You would need to upgrade to Version 2023.
Band-in-a-Box 2023 runs fine on all 13 major OS releases from Snow Leopard (10.6) through 10.13 (Ventura). It is not yet fully compatible with macOS 14 (Sonoma). We are still working on this. Most of the program does work but if you try to open a notation window, the OS informs you that it is not compatible and then immediately force quits the entire app (not very 'polite' in my opinion).