Hello Mathias, thank you for your helpful reply!
I did see that thread you mentioned in your reply, Problems with updating to Cubase 12? Please read this first before posting! , but I also saw many people running into problems presumably following those instructions, this was all soon after C12 release. I thought maybe there was something about the instructions that led folks astray, so I decided to not try to follow them in case the same thing happened to me. I started this thread to see if you guys at Steinberg had updated those instructions, officially or otherwise, somewhere in the many helpful posts you all so kindly wrote. 
And yes, hats off to @Ultimate_Outsider for the amazing set of directions he posted!
I will be updating to C12 Pro when the majority of the problems I’m following on the forum are resolved. I have an old rig (though, as per sig, it does barely meet minimum requirements for C12 Pro), so I figure I’m more likely to have a problem than the average bear. I’m not the best troubleshooter, so I’m happy (enough!) to wait a while longer while using C11 Pro.
Thank you again for your kind assistance, @Matthias_Quellmann !