For anyone else who runs into this, the winning combo was the right versioning and the right base url(after trying out make ui-build seperately)
make server GIT_VERSION=v1.0.69 PROVIDER_BASE_URLS=https://cloud.layer5.io
Then localhost:9081 → picked Layer5 in the provider chooser → signed in → Kanvas loaded straight away.
The v1.0.69 version paired with the cloud_layer5_io.. base URL was the key — my earlier attempts against cloud.meshery.io kept hitting the “Meshery Deployment Incompatible” wall, and other version combos got past auth but returned an empty Kanvas bundle