WP_Query will ONLY order by post_date column

Hello,

In WordPress 5.9, I cannot get WP_Query to order by any column other than the Post Date.

Given the following code:

$args = array(
    'orderby' => 'title',
    'order'   => 'DESC',
);
$query = new WP_Query( $args );

The returned query request is as follows:

[request] => SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS  wp_posts.ID FROM wp_posts  WHERE 1=1  AND ((wp_posts.post_type = 'post' AND (wp_posts.post_status = 'publish' OR wp_posts.post_status = 'acf-disabled' 
OR wp_posts.post_status = 'private')))  ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date ASC LIMIT 0, 10

Note order by statement, ‘ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date ASC’.

It doesn’t matter what kind of query I throw at WP_Query it will ONLY order by the post date!

Please help, I cannot understand how this could be so.

Paul S.