Thanks! This is all super helpful (and quite reassuring). I'll definitely do that, and fingers crossed I get someone honest/someone who has mercy on mysoulwallet, and will only ask to pay for what actually needs to get done.
Thanks so much for the rec! BHB appears to be about an 1 hr 15 min from me (I'm in Hollywood), but if that's where I need to be to find other divers, I'm willing to do it!
Finally, thanks to everyone on here for their wisdom and advice - the world would be a better place if everyone was as kind and generous as the peeps on this forum are. Just in case you're curious, I'll report back on how much I had to spend for everything (as well as any other info they give me).
Check with @rsingler concerning having a brass din connector on a Ti first stage to confirm that there won't be any issues with two different metals connected that way. Probably it isn't an issue but it is worth making sure first.