Thanks for that, Al.
In for a penny ... in for a pound ... as the saying goes ....
As mentioned the culprit was Essentials theme. Today, another request for assistance concerning that theme. In investigating, didn't notice before, but have now ... there is no un-install to Essentials theme.
That's surprising ... how did that pass muster with QA testing? Not only that, but in reading the readme at git hub I see that if one no longer desires to use the theme, not only does one have to remove the directories, but also edit (directly) core tables to remove it. Don't think I've ever seen an addon that required that ... don't think I've ever seen very many recommendations in these forums to edit any table manually.
Do re-call something similar happening when upgrading from 2.6 -> 2.7 ... the theme list always showed to be deleted for themes no longer compat with 2.7, but never deleted. Bug reported? Dunno ... not gonna take the time. Back then, the only way to rid the updates screen of the list, manually edit mdl_config_plugins.
Last I heard, there is an addon tool ... moodle adminer ... and of course the standard stand-by phpMyAdmin tools to allow Moodle Admin person to accomplish DB admin things. So added to the list of things Moodle Admin (in Moodle) needs to have, the ability to edit tables in the DB. Guess Moodle Partners who provide certs in Moodle admin would cover that?
Have always been leary of PHPMyAdmin cause it's s separate app that requires updating itself. Forget to do that, and there's potential for a hack to the heart of what makes Moodle go. Not only that, in reviewing apache logs, it appears there are bots that seek phpMyAdmin that needs upgrading/updating and they scan often.
Hey! Great theme. Does a lot to make a Moodle look good and 'more modern', but .... there are over 600 settings? Gee, might have to have a Moodle Admin course for a cert in Essentials theme alone!
Ok ... the real truth ... am a minimalist ... in that I'll prefer function over form any day. So consider this to be a 'rant'. :| Uhhhh ... maybe there should be a 'rant rating' as well.
'spirit of sharing', Ken