Unrelated.
A non-malicious bit flip is unlikely since then tar checksums would be wrong.
If it’s a malicious modification then, host system compromise, then you have bigger issues, all bets are off. That however is unlikely from what I’ve seen so far which seems more likely general Linux / KVM issues and user Tor configuration issues.
Not much indeed. Just when users download Whonix, then modify something without keeping exact notes, without providing exact steps how to reproduce it, then it’s not easy to figure out what exactly was modified or how to revert it. Takes longer to explain and check than a clean re-installation.
So that’s what needed. Starting clean and describing exactly in detail all the modifications you did such as while file edited and what contents saved there. Reasonable reactions are ok but otherwise it’s highly unlikely that your issue can be resolved in this forum.
You posted about this elsewhere. Here: Adding vcpu's to Whonix-Gateway? - #6 by ReCreateQubesS76G6
Stop double posting. It won’t result in your issue getting resoled any faster or resolved at all. Just creates more mess.