OK guys... I feel for those that continue to have issues with connecting to a shared printer from a Windows 11 client. Shame on MS.
For what its worth.... I installed Win 11 Pro on 2 more laptops today (Lenovo T460S and a Lenovo X1 Carbon. After setting up the network and joining the network group, setting up sharing etc... both computers failed with "Couldn't connect to shared printer" even though the printer could be "seen" by both.
The only change I made was to apply the suggestion made earlier. See below.
The supplied suggestion:
Start => Search => Local Group Policy Editor => Computer Configuration => Administrative Templates => Printers => Configure RPC connection settings => Enabled => RPC over named pipes => Apply => Ok => Restart your PC
After reboot both computers successfully installed the shared printer with no issues.
Best of luck to others who continue to have issues.
Cheers; Joe
nb