Well, I resolved my situation somewhat by "only changing" in admin- config- images;

Image - Use Proportional Images on Products and Categories from 0 to 1 per Lala_G_Clef_Jewelry posted suggestion to dinki a couple days back. Thank you.

I could not get a product image or a larger image at all. This fixed it. But what is a mystery to me is why now most but not all of the "extra" admin- config - image choices are now gone. (?)

I did read back, (you know there is another 183 posts in the old thread) and found some good advice there. Per Tim, it is ok to have the DB as is, so I am not fixing it.

The proportional choice says not to have your image sizes at 0 as I do in the top section and not in the IH section. But it still works, so I ain't gunna fix that either untel I see its broke.

The GD / ImageMagick question I had was found in the code to auto choose GD. Thus removing the need in config- admin.

so far so good,