Thanks, Guys, for the tips.
As mentioned in my first post, I already tried the "plist" route. As far as iCLOUD is concerned, I have not signed up (nor do I wish to until the day comes when I have no other choice).
I decided to (secure) erase my MBPro hard drive and re-installed SIERRA instead of "High Sierra" from my backup installer (USB flash drive). Then, reloaded all my files, folders, apps, and such from Time Machine.
This all took about 6 hours, but everything works tickety-boo . . . including SAFARI and its preferences using MacOS12. I may give MacOS13 a try again down the road, but for now I am happy returning to (plain old) SIERRA.