Dan, whether you know it or not, you are a marvel.
The mystery of why the 16x2 works and the 20x4 didn't is solved and it is/was a hardware issue.
And the problem was - the encoder's common pin is taken to gnd via the wiring harness for the 16x2 LCD, when it's unplugged to attach the 20x4 - no gnd connection for the encoder common pin