Okay, I spoke too soon.
The problem is with a Haikashop plugin to intercept with event onBeforeCartUpdate
I was using a "break" statement to interrupt program flow to examine var_dumps in developing the plugin... and before I started using a pop-up on an "add to cart" product button, it worked fine.
However, if you go of the pop-up, having a break in the plugin doesn't suspend program execution, it just seems to short-circuit the add-to-cart haikashop logic and leaves the system in a bad shape.
Sorry for the false alarm... but hopefully my experience will help others.