OK, here's a methodical way to resolve this.
1) Go back to Deductions and Credits and change charitable value to some very small value by editing each donation.
2) "Done with Donations" button
2) "Wrap Up tax breaks" button
3) If now the summary shows standard deduction gives a bigger refund (and I suspect that's the case for all of us running into this bug), click "Change by deduction" and force it into the lower (due to entering temporary $1 donation values earlier) itemized deductions option.
4) Click "Change by deduction" and make sure it's still itemized.
5) Click "Continue"
6) You should now get the CARES act screen. **COMPLETELY CLEAR THE BOX** showing how much you donated. Your real charitable contribution is probably displayed there and it's probably >$300. Leave it totally blank and click the "Continue" button.
7) Go Back to Deductions & Credits, punch in the real donation numbers, see your return increase, and then DO NOT go back to the itemized vs. standard summary screen with the 2-bar bar graph again. Otherwise go back to step 1.
Basically 10b in 1044 should be blank if you itemize, and the code forces standard deduction mode if 10b has any value in the field at all (and of course, the value must be <=$300 per CARES). Your real return value won't be as big as the highest number you saw at one point because that was likely mis-calculated with both itemized donations AND the $300 CARES act donation (standard deduction) added together, when they're mutually exclusive.
Now here's the interesting part for my $400 total cash donation. The software was right in trying to force me into taking the $300 CARES act because that's on top of the $12,400 standard deduction, since my itemized is between $12,400 and $12,400+$300. It just presented an inflated (and incorrect) value for itemized that I couldn't select. So, most of us here in this thread are likely in the same financial and charitable states - the camaraderie is nice. Now to go back and make the software put me back into Standard, by repeating the above, but this time filling in CARES value of $300 and choosing standard deduction.
