Not sure what the whole hold up was, but here is everything we had done to get to this point (with what I can remember):
Uninstall docker with these commands starting at “How to uninstall Docker” (Configure Docker in Windows | Microsoft Learn)
Delete all of the windowsfilter images in c:\programdata\docker\windowsfilter (these weren’t all cleaned up by one of the commands on the earlier page: Remove-Item "C:\ProgramData\Docker" -Recurse)
Reboot to clear the installation
Reinstall docker using the docker binaries by using this guide from MS: Prepare Windows operating system containers | Microsoft Learn (side note, this installs the new binary location directly into system32, no longer a separate folder) The newest version no longer has the problem with reading from the panic.log file.
Reboot again
Find and download the newest version of docker-compose published by docker for windows server
Rename the compose exe and place it with the new docker binaries (or edit the env variables to add it to your path, if you want it else where)
IQX to reinput the container registry creds so we can build from their repo
Run the new commands above to finish the purge of any orphaned networking connections or builds
10. Run docker-compose up -d and all shows green