Okay ... finally got around to attempt # 3 and SUCCESS !!!
Here's what I did ... Based on
this guys Arch gnu/Linux thread, which helped clarify for me. Kept going hmmmm, looks like a couple friggin files is all that's needed. Yet still face planted twice nonetheless. Btw ... also just for the record, it's all Head_on's fault.
He's knows I'm daft and he could've been more helpful. On second thought, think that link makes it fairly clear what steps are involved. Clearly if you aren't using wicd-gtk etc. Then you'd disable whatever you are using to manage networks with the "systemctl" command.
Also, I skipped bothering with enabling the systemd-resolved.service, thus also skipped symlinking /etc/resolv.conf to it's version of resolv.conf. Thanks Head_on for the heads up on it being quirky. I do have the resolvconf.service running and edited the following file /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head as root/sudo etc. What this file does is add whichever dns servers or whatever you put into it at the top of the /etc/resolv.conf file it generates. Here's the contents I added by way of example. These are the google public dns servers addresses.
options timeout:1
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4
The options timeout:1 thing is something else snatched from the blessed Archwiki and it supposedly makes the OS fallback to the next dns server listed really quickly if the first one on the list doesn't work. Ok ... that's a wrap folks, in my case I just went ahead and purged wicd-gtk and "sudo apt autoremove" to get rid of any packages assoc with it hanging around on my system. That's a wrap, time to update score board yet again.
Networkd = 2, Deb-fan = 1 (That's all I needed ya fecker, he who laughs last, laughs hardest !!!!) GAME OVER ... I WIN !