LÖVE

Major frustration. I just drafted a detailed explanation and when I tried to submit it I had been logged out. Logging back in wiped out my post!

Short & basic: how do I install love so I can run it from vscode integrated terminal to fire up the server?

Hey, I got it to work. I was under the misunderstanding that you no longer have to re-start Windows when you add a new location to the path. I was wrong. After I re-started Windows I was able to run the love . command in the game code folder and my background and ground rendered. Woohoo! So question self-answered.

I always learn something I didn't know. So, I'm wrong about needing to restart Windows. With PowerShell you can directly set the environment variables like path. The command is $env:Path
That by itself returns the current path value.
$env:Path += ";Some path like say F:\Program Files\LUA" adds that to the path and Windows immediately transmits that. If a program is running, you have to restart it, but you don't have to reboot your machine. That's cool.