so, I downgraded versions and followed the advice in the version lists and linksI listed above, and I also did Ionic CLI : listen EADDRINUSE (CLI v1.6.1)
ionic serve --address 127.0.0.1 --port 8101
to deal with my address in use error, and things are working for me.
Can’t say what exactly was the root issue/s but that’s what worked for me.