Hrm... well I guess I found the issue. My 'edit product' page does not show these extra fields -- and in fact, seems to be missing the actual DEFINE text for the various items onscreen. I would say something went awry when I originally installed, I will start the process of a full clean install (not going to be fun, but it seems the only solution at the moment).
Thanks for the help Royal! Saved me a bunch of time trying to debug the issue on my own.