A raft it is! Once I created a raft, everything else fell in place. The print looks fantastic and all the tests seemed to pass!  So, as I was saying (https://www.crealitycloud.com/post-detail/636ea02427449eea7d9e5a02), I think it was two things: a bad nozzle and bad adhesion. I'm currently running one with the fast Sonic Pad profile, and it looks great so far.