Ok, my final struggle was getting #GnuPG to switch to the new #smartcard. It seems that GnuPG was architected around a single smartcard per private key. Seems fine as a recommendation, but problematic as a strict requirement. It seems that GnuPG 2.4 has changed this, but I don't know the details.
Here's my switch scripted hack:
https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/3638931