So sorry for the extra post. Forgot two mention two things:
1. If this would be better served in the non-mod bug/tech area, I'm happy to post there instead & I apologize in advance for putting this in the wrong place.
2. I've had issues with bad saves in the past, so I started combing through my most recent saves to restore a previous one until I realized the UI/menu is affected prior to loading a save (and the UI exception generates prior to loading a save also). I guess that could still be a problem, but figured it was worth mentioning.
Lastly, in case it matters, I've been playing exclusively in build mode since the game update; no actual gameplay in live mode for a while now (working on a pretty cool build... assuming I can ever get back to it, that is).