Well, after a few days of experimentation and testing, It seems I cannot blame my switches for any (lack of signal) issues!
I ran straight cable to the microHD today, all C-band channels switched quickly and efficiently. Ku worked fine when sent straight from the combo c/ku LNB
to the receiver via it's own cable as well. Sats were already programmed properly in the MHD so all the settings were there. Then I tried simple 22khz switch vs. the 4-way diseqc. inline to my dish farm. NEITHER could pass signal. This gave me the feeling the receiver may not be able to output proper tones to the LNB for polarity switching, and for the ports needed, or that we had a random element in play.
I have a friend's older Openbox S10 here, with software he claimed was stable, so I put that online, using the pre-programmed locations in my positioner, and hooked up the diseqc. The Openbox was able to do the switching just fine for c/ku and for horizontal and vertical channels, thus I conclude we have a power problem on the microHD with regard to consistency. This could explain why it's been taking "time" for some channels to appear after a reboot, and why the occasional power cycling wwas necessary to get channels to show on the MicroHD. I was operating the MHD with a 2.5 amp "repair bench" power supply to make sure there was enough current to run the receiver, in case the wall wart was dying.
So, for a few nights, until the next hamfest makes me some bucks, I'll be running on the Openbox, hoping I can purchase a new MHD when they're again available through proper channels recommended on this site. Programming it seems a bit clunky, but I'll get all my channels in soon, and I'm grateful to have a "backup" receiver.
Not sure if it's worth sending the receiver for repair or not...but I'll look frequently to see when a new one can be ordered.