Well, it appears that the defrost thermostat limiter was defective. But this was not immediately apparent.
Several advisers lead me in other directions, but I finally ordered this limiter and installed it. Well, that didn't work!! Actually, I didn't THINK it worked, yet the fan was working and spinning normally.
In the end, the problem(s) were 3 at once, which is what made diagnosing the troubles so difficult.
1) The thermostat limiter was defective.
2) The thermostat limiter in 'this' model appliance HAS to get VERY VERY cold before it will allow the current to flow to the evaporator fan. This can take and did take over an hour, which I think is excessive.
3) It also turned out that the Plastic Fan Blade shaft hole had a very tiny split in it, that allowed the fan to spin on the shaft, without the motor turning and vice versa. So when the motor WAS running and spinning, the blade stayed put, making it appear the motor was not working.
So this one was not one of your normal events, and thus, the only way to figure it out, was to just keep digging. Had I known more about appliance operations, I 'might' have been able to identify the issues much sooner. But I think it would have still been a challenge. Good thing I wasn't paying someone to fix this!!! : )
One additional tip to help get the fan spinning AND bring the temperature down in the freezer is to take a small jumper wire, and jump the thermostat limiter at the by pass plug. This will allow the fan to run when the limiter has not cooled down enough to close the circuit on it's own. After about 20 minutes, I was able to remove the jumper, and the fan continued to run normally thereafter. (See illustration)
Thanks for the suggestions, and hope this helps someone in the future.
dwgfelix attached the following image(s):