I also got the same Fail2ban error on new install on Almalinux, l had to install the fail2ban manually otherwise it won't start correctly. However fail2ban module on front end can't handle this fail2ban version. please fix it.
To install fail2ban correctly in the mid time do:
sudo dnf install fail2ban fail2ban-firewalld
systemctl start fail2ban
systemctl enable fail2ban
systemctl status fail2ban
you can check is running, if you try to add the rules manually in fail2ban frontend module settings it will tell you the rules already exist.