First off - really well written question!
Something to try from SASkievua on battlog forums:
HEre's what he suggested and the link to the forum topic
http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/forum/threadview/2955065670117896939/3/
"I had this error too
than
- I delete file "PROFSAVE_profile" in "C:\Users\(your user name)\Documents\Battlefield 4\settings"
- launched the campaign
- set all settings from scratch
- ...
- PROFIT! multiplayer finally is working!
may be this is because file PROFSAVE_profile was created in this location by early beta-build and release version of BF4 has some problem with it"