The point of my post really is if I've had to do this twice already, perhaps there is nothing left to save.
Has anyone encountered a R with similar situations?
I think that becomes YOUR choice on it.
It is not unusual for their to be lots of confusion at the start of a WAS/WAW/MLC.
Part of DB'ing is how you put things back together.
Their was a poster here about 12 years ago, that I know, that had her husband come and go 8 times before it became permanent. So you are not the first to have this scenario.