I'll let this thread go now as I've gotten the answers I needed, and pointed in a good direction for further learning. But I found a really great, visual tutorial that has some images that really help somebody like me "see" what is really happening when baking, so I thought I'd drop it here for future troubleshooters. Even…
Thanks, @pior I'll need to hit this with a fresh mind on Monday. I'll give xNormal a shot as it's free and I already have it, though I have been interested in checking out the marmoset programs as they seem pretty popular. *Actually, I see that toolbag3 has interactive updates for the map baking, and boast being an artist…