Thanks @lion7718 for the suggestion. I didn’t think that should do it since the auto-level would be affected by this too - but I still took a shot because I had no better ideas. 
No joy though. Image below of new test print.
@kip Will try that now. That sounds plausible. Honestly don’t know how I missed that in the troubleshooting cursory review I did - but thanks for the pointer. This sounds like a very probable answer. Will report back with any luck.