Might tlmgr remove --all or the above have removed the
symlinks in /usr/local/bin?
It is supposed to, yes.
When I re-installed, install-tl pointed out to me that in
that xterm, TEXMFVAR=~/.texlive2019/texmf-var;
That is puzzling, since I doubt you explicitly set it as an envvar.
Well after re-installing, all is well again.
Yay for that much anyway :). -k