UPDATE: It was user error, of a sort. But maybe helpful if someone is in a similar situation - recently I got a new work subscription to Adobe Creative Suite - and the email I'd previously used to log into Adobe, was applied to the new account - now with a separate upgraded id -- but at some point I must have logged in with old credentials - and my secondary email (Google in my case) became associated with that session and saved a copy - so if like me you're 100% positive you saved and saved as and saved again, it might be worth logging out and back in again with other credentials - google, facebook etc.
I didn't regain everything I believe I lost, but I did manage to capture a snapshot of about 75% - which was a HUGE relief. So log out, log in again with one of the other credential choices or an older email - although I suspect this is more common for the FB/Google process -- and see if you didn't slip down a similar crack.
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