Next situation. When I try and bring up the GSX standard menu (Ctrl-F12), I get a different menu than what I am expecting. See pic. Am expecting the menu starting with (1. Request Deboarding.) Please advise.
That's because CTRL+F12 is NOT the GSX key. It's the YouControl key, which on an airport that supports it, opens the YouControl menu. If the airport doesn't support it, it will open the GSX menu instead.
The problem I see in your screenshot is not you don't have the "usual" GSX menu, because that's what you are supposed to see on an airport that supports the YouControl menu. The problem is the 1st entry is supposed to be GSX, which seems to indicate GSX wasn't running when you took that screenshot.