I don’t think it was on by default … I suspect I fiddled when I 1st opened Blender not realising that whatever you leave it on is persistent rather than choosing the best option. Now you mention it I do recall an error, which I scoffed at as I thought my GPU must be compatible :p
Whenever I rendered anything previously my PC would basically lock up and I could hardly do anything. Let this be a lesson to anyone reading this. HIP is bad sauce unless you know what you are doing.
My cycles at 50 cycles is nearly as quick as Eevee in the view port on the scene above. Quite remarkable … and my PC fans don’t suck the children in now either!
