Restoring an old backup

Hi all, here is a question for the Samsung guru's out there.

In 2013 I had a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and I used the Samsung Kies software to backup all of my messages, they were saved in a file with the .sme file format.

Fast forward 8 years later and I have a need to go back through my backed up messages however I can't figure out how to restore or read the file.

I have a Samsung S9 and I've downloaded the Samsung Smart Switch software on to my Mac.

When I connect the phone and run the Smart Switch software, I had hoped I could simply try 'restore' and choose the .sme file which would then copy those messages over to my new phone, but the software won't allow it as it says I haven't done a backup before, so it thinks there is nothing to restore. Sure, this particular phone hasn't done a backup, but I have a backup, so why won't it let me choose the one I have?

It shouldn't matter if the backup was from 8 years ago and from an older phone, the file format is still in use AND I'm only restoring message, it should be completely compatible.

The last thing I tried was doing an actual backup of my current phone messages, then swapped the messages file from the backup up folder with the old one from 2013 but the software has various references in other files so it simply didn't recognize the file.

Surely there is a way to read these messages? What is the point of a backup if I can't even use it?