as always, I am answering my own question, how weird is that!!
You're the person most invested in solving your problems, so it's not really weird. Plus, you could be working on stuff that very few people here work on (or the problems you're facing are pretty specific to your environment), so not many users can help you out before you find an answer yourself.
In any case, you're doing a great job following up on your posts - and that is great for all other forum users (including future you). Thank you for that!