thanks for your help Ipstenu!
i know my original post was a tad long but deep in there i described that after the 2nd Softaculous install failed to resolve the issue, i DID reinstall the “normal way”.
And after an aquaintance said the same thing you did – “looks right to me” i discovered that i had somewhere along the line solved the problem and was continuing to bang my head on an uncleared Firefox cache!!!
D’OH!
anyway let this be a lesson to others — don’t overthink it, try multiple browsers, and clear your &)@(#$&!!! CACHE!!!
??
anyway, thanks again for your help….