Latest version of 5.9.1 behaves way different and largely far better than previous versions. 12 hours in after launching migration, I am up and running with eISY. Nice to have a FreeBSD box to work with. Half of my battery devices required exclusion and inclusion. Rest commands to configuration parameters do not work due to https protocol, which is sad but not vital. Zwave response is shockingly fast. Time will tell on stability.
Found the problem. An "Access Control Alarm [S0]" got added to the node list and was buried. This Node allows for programs to use status that includes manual lock, keypad lock etc.
heardc's post in ISY994 to eISY migration with ~100 zwave devices was marked as the answer