SOLVED!!!
I tried AlmaLinux and the same issue so now I am pissed lol
Even so I had this line on the server side: GSSAPIAuthentication no
Nothing seems to be working and the whole file is being ignored.
I did some more digging and tried ssh -o GSSAPIAuthentication=no HOST
No issues but the goddamn line is already in place under /etc/ssh/sshd_config
idk man, this must be a YUM based system thing
To make the changes permanent, I had to add this line on the client side: .ssh/config
Host *
GSSAPIAuthentication no
Dear lord… 15y plus using DEB based Linux, managed a bunch of CentOS in the past tho, I have never encountered this problem.
Thank you Peter.