What you are saying makes sense and seems like a good way to go about the transition.
But you never answered the first question above. More generally, did you try to set up Apple Mail to retrieve AOL mail by going through the "new account" set up in Mail Preferences? What happened?
On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.
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