Why am I experiencing unwanted window resizing in Excel (2007) on Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC?

I observe the following unwanted behavior with Excel (2007) on Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC:

  1. Excel intercepts OS-level WinD key combination (Show desktop function) and responds to it by minimizing workbook window (not the whole Excel application window, just the workbook).
  2. Resizes a workbook window (again, not the whole application window, just the workbook) into some non-maximized state when you click on Excel box in the taskbar when Excel already has a focus (i.e. is currently active application receiving user input). I know that clicking on active application in the taskbar has annoying behavior in Windows 10+ of switching to the previously active application (equivalent of AltTab), which is disorienting on its own, but when a workbook window gets resized on top of that, that’s even more disorienting.

I tried searching online, but the Internet is full of AI-generated general advice of a completely separate problem of Excel starting in minimized state which is irrelevant to the problems I am describing.

Does anyone know any tricks on how to disable this annoying nonsense?