New to PSE 2018 Organizer

A short answer... will be a bit short!

I'll give it a try, but I feel it's important to first state that the organizer must be seen first as a catalog based app (which is clear for you) and that app is build around databases AND a toolkit of accessory tools to feed your catalog with useful organization data.

Let's have a look at the toolkit around the catalog.

1 - natively, it can manage folders like the explorer/finder.

2 - it can extract the important exif data in your files at import time.

3 - There are tools to help face recognition and organize people.

4 - to search by visual similarity, to find duplicates,

5 - to automatically search and assign keywords (new)

6 - to manage geotagging

7 - to manage events based on dates

...

That's for the auxiliary tools to feed the catalog.

The strength of the organizer is how to manage the above data combining any of those criteria for searches and allowing to create your virtual organization independently from folders; and mainly to group your files in version sets, stacks, album, creations.

1.  Is the Organizer more event oriented than global oriented?

As you can see it's a personal choice. For instance I don't need face recognition (people management is too important for me to use any such automatic feature. Face recognition is a much too heavy task for my computer, but it may be welcome for users with a big library and no previous tagging). I don't use much geotagging, but it may be very important for travellers. I don't see the point for events either, I have always organized in my events hierarchies without using the dedicated tab.

2.  Would I be better off starting over with the Organizer, or can I save all the face recognition that it has already done?

Since I don't use face recognition, I am not the best one to give advice... I would say that if you have already done partial face recognition (a very long process), it seems a pity to lose that info if you decide to give up face recognition and start afresh. I would take the time to analyse what has been tagged and add normal 'media' tags to identify persons. Then I would 'write metadata to files' (Ctl W)

3.  Should I delete the current catalog and start over? How do I do this?

You don't need to delete a catalog, you can simply create a new one. You can delete a catalog from the catalog manager; you simply need to have another catalog active (a new empty one for instance).

4.  The separate picture folders on my pc identify year and event.  Can I bring the photos into the Organizer by event and identify people, location, and event?

You can select any subfolder for a particular theme (people, location or event) and create instant albums or assign your own keywords in your own keyword hierarchy.

Hope this helps.