Arch version of NR ? where is that ? Do you have a link ?
While we don't recommend node 14 (yet) - the fundamental core should work.
It's a package like any other in the Arch eco system. However, it isn't in the officially supported repositories, it's in a user-maintained repo known as AUR. Support of AUR packages is spotty as nobody has any particular commitment to uphold.
The author of the (beta) MQTT app for Hubitat has talked me into another look at NR. I did see something about Docker, which I know nothing about, and if it works on Arch AND is a fully self-contained NR implementation so I don't have to mess with what I've labeled DLL hell then I'll give it another go.
Decided to give it another try, this time as a Docker container. Here's hoping for cleanliness 
I'll rebuild my flow in the morning.
I sincerely apologize for the defamatory comments about NR that I've made here. I do hope nobody took any of them personally.
I installed Docker on the same box where I had the native install of NR and installed/downloaded/imported (what's the right term here?) the latest NR container as instructed by https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/docker
I then recreated the flow posted in post #1. It works perfectly.
So, all my grief was due to my poor choice of repositories and packages. So far this install is "clean" as I wished. I'm still a bit gun shy about the longer term but I'm going ahead with migration of most control logic from Hubitat to NR.
My thanks again to all who tried to pull me out of the rabbit hole.
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phew - glad we managed to pull you back out.
Would be good if anyone knows an Arch expert to "re-imagine" that package - and help the project install more easily on that platform natively - or even write some docs with the golden path to make it work - maybe discrete installs rather than a single package.
This I may be able to do as their wiki is editable. The best hope for the package is that it gains popularity and gets into the officially supported repo. I've seen it happen but not often. As long as it remains supported by the benevolence of some user we pretty much have to live with whatever (s)he wants to do.
Well the nodejs site seems to indicate there is an official node12 version - https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager/#arch-linux
and then it "should" just be a matter of using npm to install Node-RED on top... which should be as per our manual install docs... BUT... of course it's not been tried and tested... and wouldn't set it up as a service etc.
Obviously a pre-done complete package would be nice - but yes - benevolence is required.
From https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/nodejs-node-red/
I have no idea why the dependency for nodejs is v6 but this is where I got NR the first go. And the package maintainer has something messed up with the dependencies because installing this package should have also installed the packages listed here and it did not. It was quite happy that v14 was on my system and that seems to be where it went off the rails.
It did not occur to me to get NR with npm. That may have avoided the issues. Again, noob.
