do these "MISSING" settings matter

If the optimizers (jpegtran, optipng, etc) are all showing up, then you’ll be just fine with that.

thank you…

if I’m getting this kind of feedback from GT Metrix concerning our image optimization, which settings on EWWW must I be sure to effect? (there are so many settings, I don’t know which ones to toggle on)

RECOMMENDATION GRADE TYPE PRIORITY
Optimize images
F (45)
74%
Images High
What does this mean?
Optimizing the following images could reduce their size by 121.5KiB (26% reduction).

Losslessly compressing https://ctktexas.com/wp-content/themes/silverorchid/images/main_bg.png could save 28.6KiB (82% reduction). See optimized version
Losslessly compressing https://ctktexas.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Greenwich_Apple_Cart_slide-190×130.jpg could save 17.2KiB (59% reduction). See optimized version

To get the first image (in your theme folder), you’ll need to run the Scan and Optimize on the Bulk Optimize page.

Most of the performance testing sites also expect you to strip metadata, so make sure you have that option turned on too.

I just did some new videos for 2.0, you might want to check them out:
https://youtu.be/CLBjjcaJ2pw
https://youtu.be/1AvyVeE4kUo

thank you for these videos

I’ve inititated the bulk optimization as you recommended. It’s been “interrupted” twice though. Any idea why that might be happening?

This usually indicates one of two things:

1. The connection between you and your webserver is dropping
2. Your webhost is killing the process for excessive CPU usage

In the case of #1, it is difficult to do much about, but 2.0 will have a 30 second timeout instead of dying immediately. I don’t expect to release that this week though, so if you’re in a hurry, you’ll just have to keep slogging through.

In the case of #2, I recommend using a 5-second throttle to try and avoid causing issues on a shared webserver.