Apparently, the reason I was still getting some odd behavior was because it wasn't always the beta.
But here it the strange part, I most definitely ditch the older icon off the quick launch (or whatever it's called these days) and it still had the 12.3 version. That could possibly be everyones best friend, win10 and it's "we hav vays of making you update" mentality.
Still stranger things, you'd never know by the start template what you are using. That changed the moment I installed the beta. Also, with the crappy win10 borg collective, I've had to change preferences more than once and thus adds to my confusion.
So, we have a very old man with a walnut for a brain trying to figure out how to use a program, that doesn't necessarily have two completely separate parts for each competing with the borg super-collective (sans queen). That about sums it up. But I wouldn't have it any other way