www.makemkv.com

Soure: BD-ROM hp BD CMB UJ141AF 1.00 WM23 051852 (a Panasonic laptop drive 12.9mm connected to Mac Mini M1 by unbranded USB 3.0 mini-SATA cable)
mkv files saved to nvme drive TB3 at x2 speed 9.6Mb read/sec
Powered by Caldigit USB-C Pro which is a hub which can handle the power of many types of hardware.

After I ruined a good drive by installing it in an elderly windoze laptop and then "curing" the stuttering by flashing the wrong firmware, I bought this cheap drive and hooked it up to my Mac Mini M1.

Its silent, and only occasionally drops below x2 read speed. It should handle x6

Its not going to get libredrive is it?

I get the permissions issue every time I open makemkv, although the Privacy and Security shows all of the folders and external drives are given access to makemkv. I did get a pop up saying that makemkv was denied access but didnt notice and click it before it faded.

What is the MakeMKV "Drive Information" section & "LibreDrive Information" section say about this drive?

No libredrive section, and it just gives the manufacturer HP, product reference and serial number.
It is even slower when attached to a 5th generation intel computer (2.4x 3.2M/s) so it is probably doing as well as it can.

Google search says it's a 2006 drive, so LibreDrive isn't going to see it as a potential candidate.

A 2X speed limitation is something that used to happen to keep drives quiet when playing disks, so that's a possibility... except that I'm not seeing any reference to a speed-up utility for it.